The Noble Fight
by Kate-Emma
Summary: Max’s life was expendable – until he met her. Now, five years later, he has the life he never thought he wanted. But someone’s coming to take it away from him… because revenge, in his eyes, is a dish best served cold…
1. Max's Story

**Disclaimer: **I don't own 'The Bill' or any characters mentioned in this piece.

The Noble Fight

Until recently, DI Max Carter's life had been expendable in his eyes. He's avoided making friends and letting on too much about his family so he could get to that stage.

But now he has a family – a wife and son.

And someone has decided the best way to get Max, is to take them out first…

Rated: K+ (mild violence and language)

*

DI Carter flipped the folder closed and shoved it in his drawer, casting the photo of his son one last look before standing up and leaving his office, bound for the main CID office. Another long night meant being away from two-year-old Oscar and his infectiously bubbly personality. Just that morning Oscar had awoken his parents at around four AM; eager for another story like the one his father had told him the night before. Oscar's mother didn't like the stories, thinking Oscar was young and impressionable, but Max assured her that he was the perfect age to be swayed very subtly to the cause for becoming a detective.

"He will choose his own career." His mother had protested, covering the child's ears as Max had tried again one afternoon to get the child to play cops and robbers with his toy cars. "He's too young to think about it now."

"He's the perfect age. I was four when I decided to be a policeman."

"And it clearly impeded your social skills and trust of the world." She smiled, pushing her son into the lounge room with his small red fire engine in hand. He frowned. "Exactly. I think I've made my point." And once those words were uttered, even Max's best frown couldn't get her to relent – she'd never given up under that glare like so many had before her. It was probably the only reason he'd fallen for her so easily. In every other way they were exact opposites and neither his colleagues nor hers could understand how they managed something that only sometimes resembled a normal relationship. He was cocky and determined, his pessimistic view of the world broken only once by the bad situation that had led to their beginning. She rather naïve and sweet, keen to see every person's good side but even more so when Max tried so hard to make her see they were bad. They disagreed like only they could, their arguments less about proof and more about protection. Max had promised himself long ago (it would be five years ago to the day in a week that she had bounded onto his radar protesting a young mother's innocence and then getting herself abducted to prove her point) that he would do all he could to keep her out of danger, even if it meant tarring her shiny view of the world, whereas she had promised him one morning when he had awoken to find her laying there, one finger to her lips deep in thought, that she would make him see things weren't as bad as he often made them out to be.

The day she'd agreed to marry him had made things brighter.

The day she'd bought his son into the world had made things almost perfect.

But still every day he went to work, faced the scum of London and spent far too many hours away from his young family. And every moment he missed with them hurt him. He'd missed Oscar's first word, his first steps, first day at pre-school and first smile. He lived his son's life in pictures and recounts, words from his mother-in-law about doing what was best for the family and coming home every so often. But his wife understood, an officer herself, and had simply smiled with pity every time his mother-in-law rounded him up and reminded him of other people better for her daughter.

His mother-in-law had made it clear from the start that she wasn't going to endure his moodiness, pessimism and general backhanded wit in the way his wife could. She had twice mentioned to his wife leaving the DI and finding someone more suitable.

But each time she had she'd been closed down with those little words that made Max smile. "That's not going to happen Mum. We've been through a lot together. You know that. Anyway, I love him."

Now, casting his eyes over the darkened CID office (it was a little after 11pm), Max returned to his workload with a sigh, pulling out his phone and calling home.

She answered with a tired 'hello' and he smiled. "It's me. I'm working late."

"I guessed as much. ETA?"

"About 12ish."

"Okay, well I'll believe that when I see it." She gave a tired chuckle. Max never came home on or before he said he would. It was usually a good hour or so later. He heard the phone rattle as she shifted, he assumed sitting up in bed. She had a habit of sitting up against the headboard, her legs curled beneath her, and stringing the phone cord around her wrist. "Oscar drew a picture of you today at preschool. Told everyone how you save the world." Max sighed. "He misses you Max. You're never home for dinner. He only sees you on Sunday nights. That's why he came in this morning, woke you up for a story."

"I miss him too Mill, but what can I do?" He looked at the picture of his son. The young child had Max's eyes, Millie's hair and his father's pout. Apart from the hair colour, he looked every bit Max had at his son's age. It hurt Max to be away from him, but there was nothing he could do. The job came first; he thought Millie had known that. The job always came first.

"Take next Saturday off. He has a birthday party and it's a family day. Just one day, that's all he wants. Just one day with his dad."

Max sighed again then gave in. "Okay, I'll take Saturday off."

"Thank you." She yawned. "You said 12?" He murmured a yes, assessing the paperwork in front of him. Twelve seemed unlikely. "Wake me when you get home. It isn't just Oscar that misses you." Then she put down the phone and Max snapped his cell shut, putting it down on his desk next to the picture of his son. With one last glance at the photo, he started on the mountain of work that lay ahead of him.


	2. Millie's Story

**Disclaimer: **I don't own 'The Bill'

The Noble Fight

She awoke without explanation, glancing at the clock to find it was a little after three and she was no longer alone in the bed. Sometime in the last three hours, Max had joined her, now asleep on top of the blankets with his arms crossed under the pillow and his face turned towards her. She realized Max had fallen asleep watching her sleep and smiled softly, pushing herself up against the headrest to notice he hadn't even removed his shoes. Smothering a small, lop-sided smile, she pushed back the covers and stepped out of bed. It was a cold night, but Millie didn't feel it, just tugging his laces undone with two quick movements then depositing his shoes on the floor. He made a move as they thudded to the ground, almost like he knew she hadn't placed them beside the bed where he usually did (she called it OCD, he called it organised), but didn't wake. With a shake of her head, she pulled a blanket up over him, not that he ever felt the cold anyway then took the opportunity to give the room across the hall a glance. Oscar was fast asleep, laying on his back with his mouth open and Millie smiled at him, pushing his teddy bear Jo Jo Bear back into his arms. He moved, hugging the bear to him, but slept on. Giving him one more look she stepped back out of his room and into hers where the small bedside lamp Max had obviously turned on when he'd entered gave the room a soft orange glow. Flicking it off, Millie rounded the bed back to her side and crawled back under the warm covers, glancing at Max's dark figure in the darkness.

Five years earlier, back when the extent of their contact had been one shared case and a few choice comments from PC Mel Ryder, she never would have imagined being here. Of course, it wasn't perfect by a long way, but it was good. Even if her mother hated him, he worked far too many hours, and she would have to face the decision of putting Oscar in full-time day-care or leaving work in a few months when her maternity leave ran out. All of it she could deal with.

Her mother was her biggest issue. Elizabeth Brown had always been a snob, something Millie reminded her mother every day, but she'd only got worse after she first met Max. It had been a meeting that gone steadily downhill from the opening sentence to the moment Millie had texted Mel to call and pretend she was needed at the station and that they'd have to leave immediately. Of course Elizabeth loved her grandson, completely ignoring the fact that apart from the hair colour, Oscar was every bit his father, but the one thing she couldn't deal with was something Millie and Oscar had picked up from Max's mother – speaking Polish. One afternoon earlier that year when Millie and Oscar had been visiting her mother, Oscar had accidently called Elizabeth 'babcia', the Polish word for grandmother. Elizabeth had over-reacted, pulling Millie aside and giving her a lecture.

"Amelia, what are you teaching this boy?"

Millie had cast her eyes to the sky and sighed. "Mum, stop it, he's still learning which word is which."

"He shouldn't even be speaking it. He's English. British. His mother is British, his father is British therefore he is British."

"No, he's one-quarter Polish and he's not going to be ashamed of his background." Elizabeth went to continue but Millie cut her off. "No mother, end of discussion. If you don't want him speaking Polish in your house, I'll tell him to watch his words, but you are not going to make him forget where his family come from." She walked away then, something she never would have done to her mother before, and returned to watch her son playing with a new toy car on the living room floor. Eventually Elizabeth had returned, focusing on the child and giving Millie a stern look every time she met her daughter's eye. Millie ignored it, feeling she'd achieved something by standing up to her mother.

Unlike Elizabeth, Max's mother Isabella was the nicest woman she'd ever met, something that had caused Millie to remark the first time she'd met her 'so where do your bad manners come from?', a comment met with the smallest hint of a smile from Max. Isabella molly-coddled her only grandchild and never let him from her sight, teaching him Polish songs and phrases. Oscar was a natural, picking up the language easily. But then he'd always been a bright boy, far beyond his years. It was a problem Millie faced with him at Preschool, facing a parent whose child had just been insulted by Oscar. Of course, Oscar's insults were usually backhanded comments the other child didn't understand and would react badly to. Nonetheless Millie forced him to apologize, at which point he'd trudge up to the child, lower his eyes to the floor, stick out his bottom lip, roll his shoulders forward then mumble out 'sorry' with each syllable (he usually broke sorry up into two, but she'd once heard it become three) dripping with sarcasm. Every time she watched him she tried not to smile. It was an apology he'd borrowed from his father, Max only using it once when he'd forgotten to pick up milk despite being reminded every five minutes before he left. She'd rewarded the move with a smack from a tea towel and he hadn't tried it again. Still, it worked wonders for Oscar and he used it regularly, even on his own parents. It never worked then, Millie disciplining him and Max teaching him the real way to stick that bottom lip out to look even more faux-sorry.

Oscar was Max's one weak point. He could spend all day locking up criminals, threatening suspects, fighting off men larger than himself with just his fists and wit, but he couldn't discipline Oscar. Whenever the two-year-old mucked up, chucked a tantrum or used the hallway walls as his own personal art portfolio, Max would simply say 'he's acting up again' then pretend he never saw a thing, leaving Millie to deal with the child. Because of that Max was Oscar's favourite and that sometimes annoyed Millie, but then Max didn't abuse the power, reminding Oscar every day that heroes are only heroes if they're nice to their mum. And because every word Max said to the boy was a message of utmost importance, Oscar was good to his mum, ensuring that in every picture he drew of his father fighting crime and saving the day, there would be Millie off to the side, watching on. He drew her as an angel and explained every time he did so that 'heroes need helpers and you're daddy's helper mummy'.

Of course Oscar didn't know that the reason he was even here was because, five years earlier, his father had been mummy's helper instead. He'd been there when she needed it, and then every day after that as well. He'd never left.

"Mill?" A whisper in the darkness caused Millie to wake from her thoughts and she glanced sideways at the figure beside her.

"Yeah?" She returned softly, letting him know she was awake.

"Sorry I woke you." He murmured, sounding very much half-asleep.

"You didn't wake me." She smiled, sliding further down under the covers and turning to face him. "Lots of paperwork?" He murmured something that sounded like a yes, but he was so tired it was almost indiscernible. "Go back to sleep, you sound horrible."

He gave a small hiss of a laugh. "Mill, I…" he paused, struggling to form the words in his half-asleep state. Millie looked at him; knowing whatever was coming wasn't what she'd been waiting five years to hear.

Still Max hadn't once muttered the three little words she'd said more than once about him. She knew he could say it, she'd heard him say it to Oscar once, but still she waited for her turn. Not that she really needed to hear it, his actions so far had told her he felt it, but it would still be nice to hear it at least once.

As she predicted though, tonight would not be that night.

She settled for what she got instead. "I miss you too." Then, with the touch of his hand on her arm, Max rolled on his back and went back to sleep. With a half-pout, half-smile, Millie rolled over, fluffed her pillow, and closed her eyes as well.


	3. CH 1: Family

**Disclaimer: **Still don't own Max… dang it! 'The Bill' belongs to someone else too. Dang that too!

**  
The Noble Fight**

Chapter One;  
Family

"Oscar, get down off the roof." Oscar frowned, shaking his head. He liked the roof of the cubby house, but Millie didn't. It wasn't safe. Still, having inherited his father's stubborn streak, he wasn't about to budge without good reason. "Oscar, get down, now."

"Do you want my Nick to go up and get him?" Millie's friend from the Preschool, Penny, asked as she joined her. Penny's eldest son was eight and old enough to get up there and drag the two-year-old down, but Millie knew that wouldn't do. If Oscar didn't come down by choice, he'd simply go back up again. She told Penny this and the blonde woman smiled. "He's at that age."

"It's not just the age…" Millie sighed, looking back at her son. "Oscar, if you're still up there when daddy comes he won't be happy." Oscar ignored it, his attention turned to a broken piece of plastic cladding on the roof of the child's play equipment. "This is your last warning Oscar…" Millie threatened, lowering her tone to almost a growl.

"Oscar, get down." A voice spoke up from behind Millie and she glanced back to find Max walking towards the play equipment, frowning a warning at his son. Oscar beamed and scrambled off the roof, running right past Millie to his father. Max held him at arm's length. "No, first you apologize to your mother." He ushered the child back to Millie's side.

"Sorry mummy." Oscar frowned, not trying the bottom lip trick but giving an actual, genuine frown. Seemingly the rejection by his father had affected him and Millie wondered if next time he'd be smarter about ensuring Max wasn't around before he ignored his mother. But Millie had to reward the sorry and crouched down, giving her son a hug.

"Thank you sweetheart, but next time come down when I tell you to, okay? It's not safe up there." He nodded then looked back at his father with a look that said 'there, happy now?' and Max ruffled the boy's hair as Millie stood again and looked to him. "You're late."

He shrugged. "Paperwork." He looked at Oscar. "Having a good time buddy?" Oscar nodded feverishly, beaming up at his father. "Go play with the other kids while I talk to mum okay?" The child started off but Max stopped him. "And stay off the roof of the cubby." Oscar just beamed again and ran back to play. Max looked back at Millie. "What did I miss?"

"Not much, just singing 'happy birthday'. It's probably for the best – you're not much of a singer anyway." She gave a small, cheeky smile and he shook his head.

"So, where's the cake?"

"Who's the child here?" Millie laughed as Max gave a warm smile in return. "This way you big kid."

*

Police mode never really went off, Max knew that. It was why, as Millie chatted inanely with the other women from the preschool, Max's eyes fluttered over the areas surrounding the play equipment, just watching for any sign of trouble. A child led astray by a stranger, a dark figure in the bushes just watching, any older children prepared to let weapons or drugs fall into sight of inquisitive youngsters – his eyes peeled for all. It wasn't that he didn't trust the dads left in charge of watching the children. It was more that he didn't trust this park.

Years of obbos and chasing suspects through here had ensured that no one at Sun Hill took the largest park in Canley, the aptly titled Canley Community Park, for granted. The dead, drugged, dangerous and delirious called this place home. It was unfortunate that the innocent children of Sun Hill had to as well.

Especially his son.

It was in this moment of assessing dangers that he saw the figure at the entrance to the park. Having just spent the last five minutes deeming the grandfather by the swings just senile (plus his wife had just turned up with a five-year-old and a lollipop in tow), the two teenagers by the trees just searching for a lost football, and the woman with a baby on a bench just, well, a woman taking her baby for a walk, his eyes fell on the figure in the entrance. Tall and thin with dark eyes. His gaze pierced through Max and, with shock, he realized the dark figure was watching him right back.

Then the man turned and hopped into a deep maroon car outside and drove away.

As he drove out of sight a shiver went up Max's spine.

This man had been watching him and his family.

And Max knew why…

*

Millie frowned as Max joined her, grabbing her elbow just a little too forcefully and telling her he had to go. She glared at him. "You just got here."

He nodded. "I know, but…" he paused and Millie sensed something was wrong, dropping her glare.

"What is it? Has something happened?"

But as usual Max told her nothing. "It's not an issue just, have a good afternoon, I'll come pick you and Oscar up around four. Stay here until I come back, okay?" He pecked her on the cheek and left quickly, not even responding when Oscar called after him.

Penny joined Millie, frowning after Max. "Is there a problem?" She asked, giving Millie a supportive touch on the shoulder.

Millie shook her head. "Nothing, just…" she fished for an excuse for him. "Just work." She put on a brave smile. "So, what were we talking about?" She turned her back on her husband as he got back into his car and drove off, pretending nothing was the matter, but in her mind were so many questions. What had just happened? What was wrong? What had Max seen that had left him looking so spooked?


	4. CH 2: Cold Shoulder

**Disclaimer: **See previous chapter… lol

**The Noble Fight**

Chapter Two;  
The Cold Shoulder

She sat at the kitchen table, her elbows on the table and her chin resting on her fingers, watching him as he came in. It was well after 9pm and Oscar was tucked up in bed, but Millie sat at the table, coffee cup in front of her, just waiting. He dropped his keys on the table before her and slid off his jacket, just waiting for her to say something. But she didn't, just judging him with her cold, silent stare. He sighed. "I'm assuming you want an explanation."

"That would be nice." She returned, her tone just as cold as her look.

"It was work." She frowned, standing up and putting her cup in the sink, her back turned to him more out of choice than necessity. "Look, I'm sorry but y…"

"No, Max, I don't want to hear it." She turned back to him, leaning on the counter with her arms crossed over her chest, frowning at him. "It's always work. I asked you for one day off and you couldn't even give us an hour."

"I saw someone at the park." Max admitted. "Someone I had to look up."

"And it had to be done straightaway?" He nodded and she looked away. "Fine, so, who was it then?"

"No one you'd know." He closed up, turning and walking away from her.

Millie followed. "There's something you're not telling me, I know it." She caught his arm and he stopped, glancing back at her. "Talk to me."

"It's not important." He shrugged her grip off and she scowled.

"But it's important enough to desert us? Is that what you want me to tell the girls at preschool? You embarrassed me."

"I don't care what the girls at preschool think." Max snapped, not accepting why she couldn't just leave him to what he did best and trust his judgement.

"Of course you don't because, as I always expected, you're all about work."

Max stopped his walk away from her. "What are you saying?" He frowned back at her.

"I'm saying you think yourself above my friends. Above the people important to me and Oscar." Max frowned. "No, don't pretend you have no idea what I'm talking about. You couldn't even manage one day."

"I had work." He turned away again.

"You love work more than you love me and Oscar." She snapped.

Max looked back at her with a frown, staring her down. "That's what you think?" She nodded. "Fine." He covered the distance between them with threatening steps and invaded her personal space. "You want to convince my son I'm a bad father?"

"Our son." Millie returned, her voice as emotionless as she could manage.

"He gets it from his grandmother, why not you as well? Tell him what he gets all the time – his father doesn't care, his father doesn't want him, his father is the bad guy every bloody t…"

"Daddy?" The little voice at the top of the stairs made the pair look up, right into the eyes of two-year-old Oscar. He was dressed in his duck pyjamas, looking tiny even from their angle, and he smiled at the sight of his father. "Why did you go today daddy?"

"Daddy had to go to work." Millie spoke with more venom than Max had ever heard from her. Oscar was too young to notice the tone as Max looked at her, glaring daggers. She didn't even flinch, just giving him a cold smile before looking back at her son. "You should go back to bed sweetheart, it's late."

"I want daddy to read me a story." Oscar pointed at Max as if they weren't certain of whom he was talking about.

"Sure, go pick one and I'll be up in a minute." Max smiled and Oscar ran off with a grin. He looked back at Millie to find her watching him, chewing her bottom lip. "After I read him a story, I'll take the lounge. Maybe it's for the best."

"Maybe." Millie agreed. She sighed then met his eye. "I'm not going to make him hate you, ever."

"I know." Max pushed a stray hair behind her ear then kissed her forehead. "Night."

"Night." With a sad smile she watched him ascend the stairs then headed to the linen cupboard to get him a pillow and a blanket for the lounge.


	5. CH 3: Names and Faces

**The Noble Fight**

Chapter Three;  
Names and Faces

"Guv, don't take this the wrong way but, well, you look like crap."

"Yes, thank you for that observation DC Fletcher." Max gave a dry response as Will grinned.

"Long night?" DS Jo Masters smiled as DI Carter passed her into his office.

"Don't you two have anything better to do?" He snapped, but they ignored it.

"You know I've only seen someone that grumpy when they've kipped on my lumpy couch for the ni…" Will stopped. "Oh no, she didn't." He beamed at Jo who caught on and laughed.

Max frowned. "Get back to work."

"She did. Go Millie." Jo laughed.

Max looked up from his desk. "What are you two working on?"

"We're between cases at the moment Guv." Will admitted, the taunting grin still plastered on his face.

"Great, take this." He handed them a folder and Will opened it, his grin falling quickly.

"Old Jack the hobo on the Holbeck?" Will groaned. "This is a uniform job."

"Uniform haven't had any luck. Plus I like to save these kinds of jobs for people just like you Will."

"Great, you just had to push it didn't you? Tick off the DI and we get a smelly hobo." Jo glared at Will as she grabbed her coat from the rack outside Max's office.

"I believe they prefer the term 'homeless persons'." Max called after them as they left, Will having smacked the file down on his desk with huff before following Jo out. With a small hiss of a laugh, Max looked back at the other cases, glancing at a few results from his team before turning his attention to the computer on his desk, his interest in the dark-haired man from the park peaking again. He typed in the name, reading the same information he'd read the day before. Eventually sense got the better of him and he closed the file, going back to work. He pushed down the overwhelming sense of worry. For now.

*

"Oscar, lunch." Millie's voice carried out from the front stoop to the garden where Oscar sat pushing a small toy dump truck around the yard, digging up the dirt in the family's pathetic excuse for a garden. He glanced up with wide eyes. "No, now, go wash your hands." He pouted but stood, rubbing his dirty hands on his pants. Millie cringed as the dirt stuck. Then, leaving the truck behind, he rushed past her inside. Millie stepped back, about to shut the door, when she saw the deep maroon sedan. The windows were tinted so heavily she couldn't tell if anyone was inside or not, but the feeling of being watched was so great she actually stepped down the front stairs to get a better look. Her police sense getting the better of her, she was about to charge up to the car and look in, but a voice from inside stopped her.

"Mum!" Millie glanced back at Oscar who was watching her from the doorway, his hands on his hips as he frowned at her, a cheeky look in his eyes. He was mocking her.

She smiled at him. "Hands?" He held them up. They were clean. "Good boy. Table." He ran off. With one glance back at the maroon sedan, Millie followed him inside and slammed the front door behind her.

*

The colourful figures on the television danced and Oscar was trying to keep up with them as Millie entered the lounge that afternoon sipping a mug of green tea and watching her energetic young son. He looked up at the sight of her and beamed, focusing even more on his dancing to impress her. Millie took a seat and watched him for a while, but the colours on the screen soon gave her a headache and she looked out the window next to her, looking for relief. It was then that her eyes were drawn to the car again. And it had moved.

Putting down her tea, she stood and went to the front door, making sure it wasn't just a trick of the light. It wasn't. The car had moved in the three hours since lunch. It wasn't much of a shift, but enough. Almost like someone had re-parked and tried to park in the same position as before. Narrowing her eyes at it, she grabbed her keys and shut the front door behind her. Oscar didn't notice as she headed down the front walk and out to the sidewalk, walking up to the limits of her property. With a few more steps she had a full view of the car's index and took a mental note. Then, frowning at it one more time, she went back to the house and grabbed her phone, taking it out the back so she could hear over Oscar's music.

The voice answered after two rings, a smiling female voice. Millie frowned for a second, chastising her superstitions, then decided now she'd made the call she'd might as well follow it up. "Hi PC Copeland, this is PC Brown, 212." She gave PC Copeland a chance to check the name.

"Oh yes, Amelia, you're down here as being on maternity leave until June."

"I am. Look, PC Cop… sorry, this is weird, can I have your real name?"

"Jennifer."

"Thanks, Jennifer, look I was wondering if you could run a check for me."

"Sure. A name or a number plate?"

"A plate. It's a maroon Ford sedan. It's Tango, Lima, Whiskey, Four, Four, Tango."

Jennifer repeated the plates then Millie heard her tapping away. "Yeah, it's not reported stolen. Registered to a Mr. William Quinn. 34 Hoskins Road, Canley."

Millie frowned. He lived six doors down from her. "Alright, thanks Jen." Millie hung up on Sun Hill station and put her phone down. It belonged to a neighbour. That was why it was parked in her street.

With a shake of her head, Millie went back to the lounge where Oscar stood dancing along to bouncing numbers, and her tea. She didn't notice the maroon sedan had gone again.


	6. CH 4: Devil on the Door

**Disclaimer: **I don't own 'The Bill'.

**The Noble Fight**

Chapter Four;  
Devil on the Door

"Puppy!" Oscar ran towards the fence, reaching his hand through the gate to scratch the neck of the small white Maltese. The dog's owner, the family's next-door neighbour, gave Millie a wave. Millie smiled back then grabbed her son's hand.

"Come on Oscar, we can see Ernie on the way home."

"Can I get an ice-cream?" Oscar asked, looking up at his mother with wide eyes. Millie shook her head. "A chocolate?" She shook her head again. "A lolly?"

Millie gave a low warning. "Oscar."

"A toffee?" He tried again, a smile playing at the corner of his lips.

Millie sighed. "We made a list remember? I looked and you wrote it down." She pulled out the list with Oscar's handwriting, little more than coloured squiggles, covering the page. Millie read it as if she had any idea what it actually said. "Bread, milk, eggs and teabags."

Oscar pointed a finger to the bottom corner. "And surprise." Millie's eyes turned to a dark blue coloured squiggle. "For me." He gave a cheeky grin. "It's on the list and now you gotta get it."

Millie re-pocketed the list with a small laugh, flicking back her fringe with one finger. "Alright, you outsmarted me again. You get one thing, for dessert, so choose carefully."

Oscar stuck his finger between his lips, lost in thought. As Millie glanced at him she saw they'd come to number 34. She noticed the colourful lights of the television dancing on the other side of thin curtains and stopped. Oscar, who'd kept walking, was tugged back. He stopped and looked up at Millie. "What?"

Millie glanced down at him. "Oh, I just want to talk to Mr. Quinn for a second okay?"

Oscar frowned. "Who's Mr. Quinn?"

Millie picked him up and re-shouldered the child. "Come and meet him." She gave Oscar a smile then, glancing down the street at a few neighbours she knew, pushed open the gate of number 34 and walked up to the house.

*

Max looked up as three knocks sounded on his office door. In the doorway stood a PC he didn't recognize. "Guv, I tried calling you…" the PC stopped as his eyes made it to the phone. After a whole lot of annoying updates from Will (who'd decided to punish the DI for a dud job by giving him updates every minute), Max had taken the phone off the hook so he could finish a report. "Uh, this came for you." He held out a small white envelope and Max took it without standing.

"When?"

"Five minutes ago. It was just left on the windscreen of one of the vans out the front. I didn't see who left it sir, sorry."

Max shook his head as he turned the letter in his hands, the words 'DS Max Carter' scrawled across the front. Whoever had left it hadn't heard he'd ranked up. "No problem. Thank you Constable." The PC nodded and left. Max ripped open the envelope with his pinkie finger and withdrew a letter, dropping the envelope to the table as he shook the folded piece of paper open. Only a few words were across the page but they spoke volumes.

'_I saw you at the park. Sweet family_.'

Max's breathing got heavier as his eyes danced across the words again. Noticing his hand was shaking, his slammed it to the desk. Then, with two quick movements, he ripped the letter in half, scrunched it up and threw it in the bin.

*

William Quinn, a man of about 60, opened the door with a frown. "Hello?"

"Hi Mr. Quinn. I'm sorry to disturb you. My name's Millie and this is my son Oscar. We live up at 46."

Mr. Quinn nodded with a smile. "Yes, yes, the detective's wife. I've seen you around." He held out a hand. "Nice to finally meet you." Millie shook it awkwardly, her hand still holding Oscar. Despite making it obvious he wanted to get away from his mother, Millie didn't let the boy go, still uncertain about being parted from him for even a second just in case. Mr. Quinn grinned at the child. "Oscar, what's that behind your ear?" He reached up and withdrew within his hand a penny from behind the boy's ear. Oscar beamed and grabbed for the coin. Mr. Quinn handed it over without too much fuss. "Would you like to come in for some tea? I'm just watching the cricket, we're getting pounded." He laughed.

"No, I promised Oscar a trip to the shops. I just wanted to ask about your vehicle, the maroon sedan?"

Mr. Quinn nodded. "Yes, have there been any problems with it? I tell my daughter not to park it up on the curb because it gets in the way, but she's a stubborn young lady."

"It's your daughter's car?"

"No, mine, but she drives it. I don't have any real use for it these days. Bad knees, bad hips, worse eyes." He laughed again.

Millie smiled. "I'm just wondering because I've seen it parked up outside our place. I'm sure it's nothing. I know how horrible parking is on this street."

"It's awful. And the council want to do roadworks too. That'll only make it worse. But if it bothers you dear I'll tell her to park closer, or even better would be further away. She needs the walk."

"Oh no, it shouldn't be a problem. I'm sorry to have disturbed you."

"Not a problem dear. It was good to meet you." He waved at Oscar. "Bye Oscar."

Millie withdrew the coin from Oscar's hand and passed it back to Mr. Quinn. When he didn't take it she pushed it. "Take it, otherwise he'll start begging for his own from me."

Mr. Quinn smiled and re-pocketed the penny. "Afternoon dear." He shut the door behind them as Millie dropped Oscar back onto his feet and left the property. When they reached the pavement she glanced back towards her house. The gap where the maroon sedan had earlier sat was evident and despite meeting the owner she couldn't shake the feeling there was something odd about that car. Something that made her worry.


	7. CH 5: Secrets

**Disclaimer: **'The Bill' belongs to iTV and Talkback Thames

**The Noble Fight**

Chapter Five;  
Secrets

When Max arrived home from work, pushing the day's events into the back of his mind and wiping the worried look from his face, he was met by Oscar's usual excited questions. He let the boy ask them one-after-another, barely stopping for a breath, as he went to the kitchen expecting to find Millie avoiding him. But she wasn't there. He frowned and looked at his son. "Oscar, where's mum?"

Oscar pointed to the back garden. "So did you catch any bad guys?"

"Plenty." Max answered without even thinking, glancing at the back door that was now swinging a little in a slight breeze. He assumed the worst. "Oscar," Oscar looked up at his father with wide, obedient eyes. "Stay here for a moment, I'll be right back." Oscar nodded and took a seat on the lounge as Max made for the back door. He grabbed it as it smacked against the wall behind it again, kicking a small ornament garden frog against it like a doorstop. The back garden was dark and he couldn't see Millie anywhere. The memory of the face of the man from the park floating back into his mind, he intended to turn back inside and grab Oscar, when Millie's voice floated towards him. And she didn't sound harassed at all.

"No, no, I just thought maybe if I could find out some more…" she wandered into the light from the kitchen window, talking on the house's white cordless phone. She stopped when she spotted him watching her. "Look, Jen, can I get back to you about this? Yeah, thanks." She lowered the phone as she hit the 'call' button again, ending the call. "Hi." She gave a small, forced smile.

"Hi. Who was that?" Max motioned to the phone.

Millie held the cordless up as if on show. "Oh, that? Nothing." She frowned as she came towards him. "Why do you look so worried?"

"I'm not." Max again forced the worried look from his face. As she slid past him he gave the dark garden one more glance and shut the back door behind them. He stood in the doorway watching as Millie stuck the phone back on its base and made for the kitchen. "Are you alright?"

Millie looked back at him, hiding a guilty look. She was physically fine, but the maroon sedan kept niggling in the back of her mind and she just couldn't figure out why it was getting to her. Of course she wouldn't tell Max that. Despite many things changing between them, his ability to shut down her theories with a huff or a blank look continued, and she hated them. So she kept this one to herself. "Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"No reason." He leant on the doorframe, but it was far too stiff to be offhanded. Millie ignored the secrets they were keeping from one-another and went back to analysing the pasta bake in the oven. As she stood and closed the oven door behind her she noticed he was still watching her and as usual she couldn't read his expression.

Strangely enough she felt very uncomfortable and changed the subject. "Uh, some mail came for you." She motioned to the sideboard and Max made for it, snapping it up. He dropped two bills back onto the table and skimmed a postcard from his parents who were enjoying their retirement in the south of America at the moment before passing to Millie. She read it with a smile. Finally, all that was left of the pile was one hand-addressed letter. He ripped it open and out fell two things. One was a note and the other was a small toothpick flag, like the type they stuck in frankfurts or party pies during national day celebrations. He picked it up and fingered the sharp toothpick tip as he frowned at the flag, recognizing it within half-a-second of seeing it. White and red. It was the Polish flag. He shoved it in his pocket, out of sight of Millie, as he opened the note. It was written entirely in Polish, the same scrawling handwriting from the note that afternoon.

'_Did you miss me DS Carter?'_

Max stared at the note for some time before Millie's soft laugh awoke him and he shoved the note and envelope in his pocket with the flag. She was still reading the postcard, smiling at his mother's words. As she reached the end she handed it back to him. "Your mum sounds a bit confused by t…" she stopped, noticing him staring at her. "What's wrong?" He looked away. "Max, talk to me, is this about yesterday? Why you ran off?"

"I ca…" he was interrupted when Oscar appeared in the doorway.

"Mu-um." He beamed at his ability to split the one syllable word into two. "When's dinner?"

Millie smiled at him. "Soon." Oscar bounded off again.

Max's eyes followed him and then he looked back at Millie. "I'll get changed." She gave a silent nod, watching him leave the kitchen, his hand still in his pocket. More secrets.

Suppressing a sigh, she stuck the postcard to the fridge and went back to dinner.

*

Three days later the third letter came. It was left on the windshield of the family's Ford. Inside it was another toothpick flag and a handwritten note, this time in English. It simply read '_say hello to Millie and Oscar for me'_. Max crumpled it up and threw it in the bin, but as he turned back to the car he realised Millie was standing on the front doorstep watching him. He met her eye as she frowned. "What was that?"

"Nothing."

Millie looked about ready to fight him but then she deflated. "Okay, if you don't want to tell me…" she turned and started back inside.

Max followed impulsively. "Millie. Mills stop." She paused just inside the doorway but didn't look at him. "It's not that I don't want to tell you, I just can't."

Millie shook her head. "That's a poor man's excuse." She turned on him quickly, taking him by surprise. "Either you want to tell me or you don't."

"Fine, I don't want to tell you." He shrugged. "Is that what you wanted to hear?" Part of her appreciated his honesty. The other half wanted to hit him with something but there was nothing close to hand. She frowned and averted her eyes. He sighed. "I have to get to work, just trust me okay?" He kissed the top of her forehead and turned away before she spoke again.

"Oscar and I are having lunch with a family from Preschool. He'd like you to be there."

Max stopped, feeling he owed her at least one thing. "What time?"

"Two, at the Archer Café on High Street."

"I'll be there." Then, with a nod, he was gone. As his car rounded the corner and out of sight, Millie opened the garbage, pulling out the note and toothpick flag. She read the note with a frown before turning her attention to the flag and rotating it in her fingers as she analysed it, unsure what any of this meant.

Then, with another look down the empty and maroon sedan-free street, she tossed them back in the bin.


	8. CH 6: Enemy

Happy Birthday to me… Where's my party?

6 years on = 6 updates. Here's number 1…

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Max, Millie or the suss Polish bad guy. But if I could, I'd call the suss Polish bad guy. He's so awesome!

Chapter Six;  
Enemy

He kept his promise, albeit a little late, and Millie visibly relaxed at the sight of him. "You're late." She gave him a smile though as he introduced himself to Millie's friend Isabella. Oscar didn't even notice his arrival, caught up in a lively conversation with Isabella's son.

"Work." It was Max's oldest excuse, but she seemed to accept it this time with just a shrug, turning her attention back to Oscar.

"You're a detective at Sun Hill, right?" Isabella asked, sounding very interested. Max glanced up at her from the menu with a nod and a brief smile. He sensed Millie listening in, but she pretended she wasn't. "Millie talks about it. Says you're very good at your job." He didn't meet his wife's eye, but felt a little better at the knowledge. "Must be interesting."

"Sometimes interesting doesn't quite describe it," he muttered, not looking up from the menu again. It wasn't that he was too interested in the list, but more that he was trying to hide the rather obvious expression of disinterest across his face. He didn't want to be here, playing 'happy families' and drinking coffee when in reality the events of the last few days were beginning to weigh on him and were getting heavier by the hour.

He glanced at Millie for a second as the waiter arrived and took their orders. She'd tied her hair up for the meeting, her fringe falling over only one side of her forehead and a few escaped hairs covering her ears, and she hadn't really dressed up, just sporting jeans and a grey sweatshirt. She looked perfectly normal, but there was something in her expression that troubled him. And, he noted as she asked him if he was ordering anything, she still hadn't met his eye. As he placed an order for a Flat White, he touched her arm and lowered his voice. "Are you okay?" She nodded, still without eye contact. "Is this about this morning?"

"You mean about the fact you never tell me anything?" That hint of venom had returned to her voice and she hissed the question softly, menacingly, her way of saying he was right but she daren't admit it.

"Let's not do this here."

"Oh, finally we agree on something." She looked away, pointedly beginning a conversation with Isabella. Max looked to the table with a heaving sigh and then allowed his eyes to dart the café. It was a nice place, one of the more up market places on this end of Canley. The High Street was long; so long in fact it almost took in the whole of Canley. One end was close to the estates, dealing in the nightclub scene and the discount shops. It was the end Sun Hill's uniform were called out to most. This end of the High Street was more up market, closer to the more respectable end of Canley. Here were groceries, restaurants and cafes just like the one he now sat in. The Archer had the air of an old pub but with the right amount of class. And the menu looked straight out of a restaurant. It was an indication that Canley was changing for the better, moving way from housing estates and council flats and into a more livable place.

Not that any of this meant any kind of decrease in crime.

It didn't matter how a place was because crime was indiscriminate.

Letting his eyes wander over the other patrons in the café, his detective senses still on, he paused at the sight of a woman he'd interviewed the day before regarding a break-in. She still looked shaken and he felt sorry for her, wondering if she'd be okay. He paused at the realization of pity. Damn, he thought, she's rubbing off on me.

Hiding a smile, Max's eyes kept going, turning now to the patrons at the front of the café. Their table was just inside the door, up against huge bay windows opened up so the external seating merged fluidly with the internal seating. Only four tables sat out front, three empty and one occupied by two older women chatting animatedly. He tried to ignore their conversation (the purple-haired woman's grandson was starting his A-Levels soon) by glancing across the road at the music store. The entire front of the store filled with TVs playing music videos, his attention was caught on it for a second before something out of the corner of his eye got to him and he glanced at the alleyway beside the music store and right into the eyes of the dark-haired man from the park.

He closed his eyes for a second, willing mind-games to be the cause, but when he opened them he saw the man smirking at him. Then he waved.

Max reacted quickly, taking Millie's hand. "We have to go."

She frowned, finally meeting his eye with a glare. "What?"

"We have to go." Max had already stood, dropping a twenty on the table. "Sorry Isabella, it was nice to meet you." He dropped Millie's hand and picked up Oscar. "Come on buddy." Oscar frowned but didn't say anything. "Come on." He started out the door.

"Sorry," Millie shot back at her friend before she followed him from the café. "What's going on?"

"Get in the car." Max gave her a soft shove towards the open car door. He thanked his lucky stars he'd managed to get parking almost right outside the café. He didn't know what would've happened had they been forced to walk. Millie looked set to protest, but followed his instructions with just a cold glare. As Max rounded to the driver's side he looked back at the alleyway. It was empty this time but Max took no chances and started up the car.

*

They didn't stop until they reached the Tallow Road shopping district, Max having doubled back on himself more than once. Once there they got out of the car and Max swept his son into his arms, continuing to ignore Millie's questions until they entered the large electronics store and Max deposited the boy in front of a games console with two other children. Ruffling the boy's hair, he took Millie's hand and led her away from the child, keeping his eyes darting between the door and the boy. "Are you going to give me an explanation yet?" Millie asked again, glaring a look that she'd acquired from years with him.

His answer was just one word, more breathed than spoken. "Jankowski."

She frowned, her lips pursing as she wondered why that name was so familiar. Eventually it came to her. "Marek Jankowski?" He nodded. "You killed his brother during your CO19 years." He nodded again. "I thought he was away for a long time. Drugs or whatever it was."

"It was drugs." He glanced at her. "You were there. How bad is your memory?"

She frowned. "Now isn't the time for insulting me. Now is the time for explaining why you panicked at the sight of him. I'm going to have to explain this to the girls at preschool."

"Stuff the girls at preschool." He gave his son one last look and turned back to her. "This isn't the first time I've seen or heard from him."

"What?" Millie sounded shocked, her voice gasping out the questions that followed. "When? Where?" She glowered. "Why haven't you told me?" She paused and frowned. "The note, the flag."

"You went through the rubbish?" He looked insulted.

"If you're not going to tell me anything Max that's what I have to do." She leant past him, looking at Oscar who was engrossed by the game in front of him. As she looked back at Max she found him watching her. "Is Oscar in danger?" He looked away. "Tell me the truth." Her tone dropped menacingly.

"Maybe."

Millie put her hand to her mouth. "Oh god. Why? What does Jankowski want with us?"

"Revenge. He promised it, at the trial. He promised revenge."

"I heard him, but they all say that. They're just words."

Max shook his head. "This is personal. That wasn't the only letter from him. I received three more. The last one was on my desk this morning, when I got into work." He dug it out of his pocket and handed it to her. As she scanned it, Max made to take it back and translate it. Again, it was written in Polish. But Millie seemed to understand it.

It was Jankowski's most threatening one yet and Millie looked up with wide eyes. "He's not touching our son." She spoke through clenched teeth, her jaw set tight. Max nodded, taking the letter back. He had to pry her fingers off it as she strangled the letter, taking her anger out on the white paper.

"I'm not going to let him." He re-pocketed the note. "He want…"

Millie cut him off. "If he calls you like he says he will, you can't meet with him. He'll kill you."

Max marveled for a second at how quickly his wife had picked up his native tongue, but it was forced back again by reality and he shook his head. "I have no other option." Millie's head dropped as she realized he was right. "You read it Mill. If I don't meet with him, he'll kill you and Oscar instead."


	9. CH 7: One Man Band

**Disclaimer: **I own your soul… but not 'The Bill'…

Chapter Seven;  
One Man Band

They were quiet the entire trip out of the city centre, Max's eyes focused on the road and Millie's on their son who was sitting in the backseat with an oversized lollipop and not a care in the world. As Millie turned to look at him again, he caught her eye. "What's wrong?" He looked worried for a second, like he'd been caught doing something wrong.

"Nothing sweetheart." As she turned back to face the front, she saw Max watching them. She lowered her voice to address her husband. "What happens now? If he's following you to the shops, leaving notes on your car, then he knows where we live."

"He does. He knows where we live, work, probably even knows where Oscar goes to preschool." His knuckles clenched the steering wheel as he glared at the road ahead. "We're going to your mum's."

Millie's eyes widened. "And you think Jankowski won't know where she lives? Max, if he's been fo…"

Max cut her off. "It's the only option we've got. My parents are out of town so it won't be safe there. My sister lives too far away. Your sister lives too far away."

"Then Sun Hill, we'll go to Sun Hill. We'll be safe there."

Max slowed the car down at a set of traffic lights and looked at her. "No contact with police, no contact with anyone else or he gets you and Oscar. I just need to face him, just once, and then we can sort this out."

"That will sort it out? Max, he'll kill you. How is that sorting it out?"

"Just trust me." He turned his attention back to the road.

Closing her eyes and biting her bottom lip with her two front teeth, Millie leant her head back against the headrest and prayed this was all some horrible dream.

*

By the time they reached her mum's place however, Millie was quickly realising it wasn't and the fight started to creep back. She'd been able to forgive and let go of many things when it came to Max, but this wasn't one of them. She could forgive his late nights, obsession with work, neglected promises and lack of emotion, but walking himself into serious danger just to prove he could – that was unforgivable. Sometimes she wondered if he still remembered he had a family to think about when he decided one of his old renegade moments were appropriate.

"Millie, Oscar, what are you doing here?" Elizabeth smiled at them from the doorstep, purposely 'forgetting' Max was there. She had a habit of not registering him.

"Mum, can you take Oscar please? Max and I need to talk." Elizabeth nodded and, taking Oscar's hand, led the boy inside. Closing the door, Millie turned to Max who was watching Oscar leave with a completely blank expression. "You already know where Jankowski wants to meet, don't you?" Max nodded. "How?"

Max fished out his mobile phone and pulled up a text from an unknown number. It simply said 'the Weighbridge Dockyards'. "It came while we were in the car."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Max just took the phone back and re-pocketed it, avoiding the question. "You're impossible!"

He caught her eye. "Let me handle this."

"I'm coming with you."

"No, no you're not. You need to look after Oscar."

Millie glared. "I'm still a police officer Max, or do you forget that? Don't treat me like some hapless damsel in distress." Max frowned and looked away. "I'm serious."

"And I'm serious, you're not coming." She crossed her arms but he didn't give in. "Your job now is to look after Oscar, I'll look after everything else."

"And who's going to look after you?"

He still didn't meet her eye. "I can look after myself."

"Max, look at me." Her voice became a growl and he was forced to look at her. Anger and the earliest onset of tears brimmed in her eyes. "Let me help you." The statement was lathered with more. Let me help you. Let me know you. Let me in.

But he stayed rational. "I'll be back soon." Then, ignoring her calls after him, he turned and started back towards the car. As he started up the old blue Ford, Millie appeared at the front gate, watching him pull away. Her glare followed him down the street.

*

"Amelia?"

Millie looked back towards the house at the sound of her name and saw her mother watching her, a frown etched on her face. She gave a small sniff and Elizabeth's frown deepened. "What's happened dear? What has he done?"

Millie shook her head. "Nothing."

Elizabeth joined her daughter on the front path as Millie, head hung and deep in thought, started back towards the house. "If he's intentionally hurt you…"

"It wasn't intentional. Sometimes I think he doesn't even know he's doing it."

Elizabeth sighed. "I'm sorry sweetheart. If there's anything I can do."

Millie looked up. "Yeah, actually, there's something we can both do." She pulled out her phone and brought up a previously dialled number. "I need you to watch Oscar for an hour, and I need your car."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm saving my husband from himself." Then, with a smile, Millie put the phone to her ear and made the call.


	10. CH 8: Meeting

**Disclaimer: **I don't Max, Millie or even awesome bad guy Marek. Dang.

**A/N: **With chapter honours to an old family dictionary and too much time on my hands…

Chapter Eight:  
Meeting

The dockyards were quiet, only the soft sound of machinery moving around in the distance as Max stepped out of his car and, hands shoved in his pockets, waited for any sign of Jankowski. A scrabble of shoes on dirt and a voice ten minutes later signalled his appearance.

"_Popoludnie_." Max turned and stared at the man glaring back at him. "I didn't think you'd come." A cold smile crossed Jankowski's face. He hadn't changed much in five years. His hair was still greasy, his face still sallow and his eyes devoid of all emotion. Prison hadn't made him any more predictable either and Max kept the car between them, just in case.

"I came to tell you to leave me and my family alone."

Marek nodded. "I guessed so." He took a step closer and Max kept the car between them still, taking a few steps sideways. "Do I _przestraszyc_ you DI Carter?"

Max glared back. "It's for your own good Mr. Jankowski because, in all honesty, I don't know what I'm capable of right now."

Marek chuckled. "Good answer. No _uczucie_; no feelings."

"Don't give me a lecture about feelings Jankowski, you destroyed your brother's family."

"No, you! You destroyed Thomas' family Mr. Carter. You shot and killed my brother. You started all of this. Everything." He waved his hands toward the docklands, taking it all in with a sweeping gaze. "All this _balagan_." He sighed, repeating the Polish word under his breath, the soft sounds of _ba'wa'gan_ hitting Max's ears as his eyes remained trained on the man, not trusting anything he did for even a second. Finally Marek stopped pacing. "This ends here DI Carter." At that Max glanced about him, looking for signs of everyone else. He couldn't see anyone, but the feeling of being watched was overwhelming. He put his hands on his car keys just in case. "It's time we finish this, don't you agree?" Marek gave a cold, unnerving smile. "Build bridges as they say?"

Max kept his hands on his keys.

*

Her mother's red Honda started up a lot faster than the family's old car did and Millie had barely a second to register it was ready to go. As she pulled at the handbrake two small eyes at the passenger window caught her eye. She rolled the window down with the button next to her on the door. "Oscar, back inside to grandma."

"Mummy, can I come too?" Little more than his eyes and forehead were over the doorway, and even then he was probably on his tiptoes, his arms holding him up so he could look at his mother. "I can help."

"Sweetheart, please, go back inside and stay close to nana. If you see anyone, speak to anyone, you have to tell her straight away. Don't go with anyone, no matter how nice they are. Daddy and I will be back soon, then we'll go home okay?" His bright blue-green eyes watered up. "I have to go. Hop down." His face disappeared from the window and a minute later he appeared again in the garden by the driveway, looking through the passenger window and right into her soul. Millie bit her lip. She'd go through hell for her son, but how could she tell him that without scaring him? How could she tell him that he had to let her, his angel, face demons to make sure he was safe? In the end she held up a finger and gave a small wave. He waved back, his face still showing he was disappointed to be missing out on a trip. With one last look at his face, Millie stuck the car into reverse and left behind her young son's teary eyes.

*

"Sun Hill Police Station." Jennifer Copeland, 26-years-old and new to the police force, had been surprised when she'd been told she had a call waiting for her. She'd taken it quickly, brushing her shoulder-length mahogany brown hair back as she answered it, the bushy mop once again slightly tangled in her headset. She ignored it as a newly familiar voice came through.

"Jen, hi it's Millie again. Sorry to call you on the switchboard but your phone was off."

Jennifer smiled. "It's okay. What's the problem? Has that maroon sedan returned?"

"No, nothing from him lately, I think I was just over-reacting. It's something else. You're in the IBO right?" Jen gave a murmur of a yes as she glanced up at the Inspector walking past. She pretended to type something into the computer and he kept walking. "I need a huge, gigantic favour and if you can help me I'll owe you forever."

Jen bit her lip. "Millie, I don't know what I can do, I'm a PC. I just came off probationer like two months ago."

"I'll tell you what to do. Just trust me." Jen 'umm'ed and 'ahh'ed for a second and Millie spoke again. "Really, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."

Jen sighed and gave in. "What do you need?" As Millie went through what Jen had to do the constable's eyes caught those of her Inspector and he frowned. She gave him a small smile and he glanced back at the others in the room, returning a lowered eyebrow on her every so often. Eventually Jen got the whole plan and, putting down her headset, went to the computer at the back of the room where camera footage was called up to be watched live. She'd leaned over it and typed in 'Weighbridge Docklands, camera…' before a hand came down on her shoulder.

"PC Copeland?"

Jen smiled up at the Inspector warily. "Guv, hi, just…"

"Checking something out?" Jen nodded. "For whom?"

Jen looked away. "PC… um, PC…" The Inspector stared right through her. "PC Brown. PC Millie Brown."

He nodded. "Really? She's on maternity leave PC Copeland, you'll have to do better than that."

"It's the truth. Guv, she's on line 4, you can talk to her if you want." Jen reached over to her desk and grabbed the headset, passing it to him. As he took them she hit '1' on the keyboard and footage came up of empty docks. She hit 'backspace' and started to type in another number as the Inspector's voice came across.

"PC Brown?" He was quiet and Jen glanced at him. He caught her eye. "No, Millie, it's Inspector Smith. What are you doing calling my crew to run traces for you? You're on leave." Inspector Dale Smith frowned at Jen's 'I told you it was her' face and she looked back at the computer, typing in '2'. Another angle came up, this one showing one car and two men. Jen tapped at the screen and the Inspector frowned. "Millie, can you tell me why I'm looking at DI Carter at the Weighbridge Docklands." He frowned again. "The entrance on Birchgrove Rd. What do you mean he…" he put down the headset. "She hung up on me." He looked like he'd just been smacked in the face before turning a frown on Jen who actually took a step back in surprise. "Do you want to tell me what's going on PC Copeland?"

"It's a bit of a story."

"My office then. Two minutes." Smithy strode from the room and Jen sighed, flicking off the footage just as the screen became a blaze of movement.

*

After ten minutes of silence, Max spoke. "I thought we were going to talk?" He glanced at his watch. It had been nearly 40 minutes since he'd left the Brown's house and taken off on this hunt. He just wanted to go home, this whole thing over with, and get back to what he did best – solving crimes. Instead he was left with a silent Marek whose face was so devoid of emotion Max couldn't tell whether he was about to get hugged or stabbed. Naturally the safest bet was stabbed.

Marek looked up. "Did I say 'talk' DI Carter? I believe I said 'finish this'?"

"You told me to come to the docklands and we'd talk." He took a step towards his car, assuming the worst, but he wasn't fast enough as four vice-like hands gripped the top of his arms and dragged him back. He hadn't even heard them approach, too caught up in Marek's maniacal expression.

"We have talked DI Carter and it's been fun, but now we end this." Marek walked with them, making sure he was all Max could see as he was dragged backwards toward a group of shipping containers nearby. He heard one of them swing open and then he was lifted off his feet and tossed into one, collapsing into a pile of crates. One fell on him, pinning his ankle. He groaned in pain but kept his attention focused on Marek as the man stood in the doorway. "I'm afraid my English isn't as good as I thought, so I'll say this in a way we can both understand. You are not here for talking DI Carter. You are you here to _marznac_." Then, with a grin, Marek slammed the container door shut. With an angry shove Max pushed the crate off him and got to his feet just as a whooshing sound of fans echoed around the metal container. A breeze wafted over Max and he suddenly knew what Marek had meant. He was locked in a solar-powered cooling container; the type used to ship frozen products over on barges and container vessels. An over-sized, airtight freezer. And with no one coming to help he was about to do just what Marek had suggested. _Marznac_. Freeze to death.


	11. CH 9: Frozen Hearts

**Disclaimer: **I own monkeys and The Bill… I lie, I just own 1 monkey – I call him my little brother!

Chapter Nine;  
Frozen Hearts

Max glanced at his watch again, the chill in his hands making it hard for him to raise it, but eventually he looked at it. It had been a long time, far too long, and Marek was surely long gone now. He was stuck in this freezer, alone, just waiting for the end. It wasn't the happiest place he'd ever been, but slowly he came to the conclusion it was for the best. Jankowski had got his revenge. Hopefully now he'd leave Millie and Oscar alone.

Plus, he gave a hiss of a laugh, Elizabeth would be happy. Now she could set Millie up with one of those men she'd spent the last four years trying to force on her daughter. One of those men that would be a better father than Oscar's real father - the workaholic. The unemotional workaholic who didn't care about his family.

Max didn't blame her. He knew the impression he gave out. He loved his work more than his family. God, Millie had said that to him only nights before. How that had stung. He could deal with anyone else thinking it, but her?

Now he was going to freeze to death in some discarded backyard freezer with no way of ensuring his family would be all right. He'd failed.

He closed his eyes, preparing himself for that warm feeling that came over you just before hypothermia set in. His last hope on his mind that Millie knew what she'd said wasn't true...

*

Sunlight bathed the freezer as the door swung open, the figure in the doorway surrounded by light. Max's eyes squinted in the glare and tried to focus on the figure, hoping Jankowski hadn't returned to finish him off his own way. Max didn't have the energy to fight. Plus he'd just grown rather fond of the idea of freezing to death, having spent the last twenty minutes talking himself into it. But it wasn't Jankowski, he knew that when the figure gave a gasp and flicked off the system, the controls just outside the door. With the whir of the fans gone, he finally heard her voice and sighed, all he could manage. She came inside and he got a better look at her, her eyes wide with worry at the sight of him. She pulled off the scarf around her neck and wrapped it around his hands, crouching in front of him and rubbing them. "It's a good thing I don't take no for an answer." Then she gave him a warm smile and helped him to his feet. Almost instantly he felt better, knowing he hadn't been in the freezer as long as he thought. His right foot had fallen asleep, but his left foot was fine, and he could still feel his legs. He punished himself for giving up so easily and allowed her to lead him out into the warm midday sun where she left him to 'thaw' as she went to fetch the water bottle they kept in the car (the old blue Ford prone to over-heating and needing water more often than it should). As she returned with it, she sat down beside him.

"What happened?"

"Jankowski happened. He outsmarted me and shut me in there." He thumbed back to the freezer.

"I think you should go down to St Hugh's." She suggested, rubbing his hands between hers again. At her touch he instantly felt better and shook his head.

"I'm okay, just foolish." She sighed and looked away. He slid one hand from hers and used it to pull her to him. "What?"

"Nothing, just, when I opened that door and saw you there I thought... you looked..."

"Dead?" Max finished, not sugar-coating the issue.

"Yes, thank you Captain Tact, I was going to say dead." She faux-frowned at him and he gave a small smile. "I know you Max. You're so desperate to get Jankowski that you're going to stuff up again. What if no one's there to help you out then?" He dropped eye contact with her. "Oscar needs you Max. I need you."

He heaved a sigh. "You were right to say what you said." She looked confused so he elaborated. "About work." She made to say something but he held up a hand. "No, let me say it otherwise I'll forget it needs to be said. You were right, I take work too far. You and Oscar are the most important things in my life, you got that?" Millie beamed. "There, now my moment of weakness over..." Millie giggled softly then stood, helping him to his feet. Once back on his feet, he didn't let her go as she'd clearly expected, pulling her to him and winding his arms around her. She hesitated for a second, shocked, then laid her head on his shoulder. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye then turned and pressed his lips to her forehead. Her fingers clasped the back of his shirt as she reveled in the hug, the first he'd given in what had felt like far too long, before the ringing of her phone caused her to stiffen. Drawing the phone from her back pocket, Max answered it as she stepped back, watching him.

"Amelia Brown's phone." He frowned. "Elizabeth? Yes, of course. Yes, I'll put her on." He handed Millie the phone.

"Mum, what's wrong? No, mum, take a breath. I know I said I wouldn't be long but we ran into some problems." She caught Max's eye with a worried frown. "What do you mean you can't find him?" Her breathing got heavier and Max felt her clutch his shirt tighter, pulling the fabric taut across his stomach. Her bottom lip trembled. "You don't... no... we'll be right there." She finished the call, struggling to force the phone back in her pocket. Eventually Max took it from her hand.

"What is it? What's happened?"

"It's Oscar." She looked up at him with wide eyes. "Mum can't find him anywhere."


	12. CH 10: Blame Games

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing…

Yay! I graduated! So here's a shiny new chapter to go with my shiny new degree…

Chapter Ten;  
Blame Games

"Mum?" Millie rushed from the car and to the doorstep where Elizabeth Brown stood waiting, wringing her hands in much the same fashion Millie did when she was nervous. "When did you last see him?"

"About 40 minutes ago, he was playing with his trucks in the backyard." As Millie tried to stop her mother from crying, Max dashed into the backyard and stopped at the sight of the trucks sitting alone in a muddy patch, Oscar's shiny new red tow truck caked with dried mud. And there, right in the back of a faded yellow tip truck sat a small toothpick flag, red and white. Max swore under his breath and picked it up. It had quickly become Jankowski's calling card and Max knew instantly what it meant. They had his son.

Max rushed back inside and pointed one accusatory finger at Elizabeth. "Why weren't you watching him?"

"Max!" Millie glared at him. "Don't blame her!"

"Who should I blame then? He's a little kid and she left him alone."

Elizabeth looked hurt. "I only…" she looked to Millie for support. "I only turned my back for a few minutes, to make him some lunch."

"It's not your fault mum, you didn't know." Millie glanced at Max as he raised his hands to the back of his head and glared at the floor. "You don't know what this is all about." Max looked up with a warning that read 'don't say anything' but Millie ignored it. "Mum, Oscar could be in serious danger."

Elizabeth put a hand to her mouth. "What? No, he's just wandered off, he's an inquisitive boy."

Max joined them, holding a small item clenched between thumb and forefinger. "This…" he waved the toothpick flag in her face. "This was a warning. He's been kidnapped and you j…"

Millie pushed him away from her mother with a strength he didn't know she had. "Don't blame her! You wanted to leave us here and go fight Jankowski yourself. It was a trap Max! Can't you see that? He had no intention of talking to you. He didn't want to reason. He led you there with the intention of locking you in that container and leaving you there to die, then coming back for us." Elizabeth's quiet sobs broke Millie's thoughts and the anger softened. "If I'd been here he would've taken me too and I can't do another hostage situation."

"You should've been here. I told you to stay here and look after him."

Millie glared back at him, a dangerous look, and he shrunk back from a finger in the chest. "Don't you dare. Don't you dare make out that any of this is my fault."

"I'm sorry, I just… I need to find him." He made to grab his jacket and leave again but Millie's voice stopped him.

"If you find him he'll kill you and this time I might not be around to stop him." Max glanced back to find Millie watching him, tears evident in her eyes. He looked to the ground, unable to keep up the one-man campaign with the knowledge if anything happened to him she'd… he couldn't face it, but she seemed determined to make him. "Don't make me risk losing you both Max. I can't do this alone."

Eventually sense got the better of him and he dropped his jacket, pulling her into his arms. She sobbed into his shoulder, deep racking coughs that shook her entire body. He held her pressed to him, worried if he let her go she might crack. But she was holding out better than he gave her credit for and she stepped back after a minute and wiped her eyes. "What do we do?" Max finally asked, brushing her fringe off her forehead.

"We do this the right way. We need to get the police involved." Max looked away and she seemed able to read his mind. "Jankowski said if we got the police involved he'd hurt Oscar. He said if you went to meet with him we'd be okay. But we can't trust him, he's already crossed us once."

"Which is even more reason to take the threat seriously."

"We have no choice. We don't know where he is. We haven't got the resources to find him ourselves." Millie made him look at her by tilting his chin to her. "Sometimes we have to ask for help. It doesn't make you any less of a man."

"Okay." His voice was little more than a breathless whisper, but it bridged the small distance between them and Millie nodded.

"Okay." She gave a brave smile, despite the tears, then fished her phone from her pocket. Max watched on, one hand still on her waist for what he told himself was support for her but soon came to realise was to help him cope, and she held down the '2' button and speed-dialled before holding it to her ear. After a few seconds an answer came through. "Jen? Hi Jen, it's Millie here. Yeah, thanks for your help, I found him." Max realised how Millie had managed to track him to his freezer prison and almost smiled, but the revelation his son had been abducted soon flooded back, causing him to press his teeth to his bottom lip to stop it from shaking. "I was hoping to talk to the DCI if that's possible. Thanks." She caught Max's eye again and he watched her, her eyes still brimming with tears as she carried on bravely. "DCI Manson? It's Millie Brown. Yes, yes I know he's not in today sir, he's here with me. That's why I'm calling you sir. We need your help."


	13. CH 11: Little Boy Lost

Chapter Eleven:  
Little Boy Lost

DCI Neil Manson tapped the picture. "His name is Oscar Joseph Carter. His grandmother Elizabeth reported him missing from her home in Periwinkle Avenue on the Barton Street patch just a little after three this afternoon. Hence, the joint operation." He motioned to a handful of constables, two DCs and a DS from Barton Street who stood at the back of the room. "Our main suspect is this man," Neil turned on the picture of the man who had spent the last week tormenting Max's family. Standing by the door, Max glared at the picture, shooting death wishes at the man with his eyes. Millie, who had returned to her uniform for the operation, sat near the front of the room with a few other PCs she seemed to know but he didn't recognise, excluding PC Valentine who sat next to Millie with concern etched all over his face. She'd spent the entire briefing so far with a blank expression on her face, keeping brave, but Max had noticed the small things others hadn't seen. She was blinking more often than normal and she kept twisting her fingers in and out of knots. But she was handling it a lot better than many would have, even Max who'd spent the entire briefing with his jaw clamped shut, lest the tiniest movement cause him to show any weakness. "His name is Marek Jankowski." Neil continued. "Some of you may know him and his record. He's been in Longmarsh for the last five years serving a prison sentence for drugs and running a protection racket in Canley's Polish community. Oscar's parents were responsible for putting him away in 2009. We feel that may be the reason why Oscar has been targeted." He didn't motion to Max or Millie, most of the relief knew Oscar's parents anyway, and Max watched Roger squeeze Millie's hand as it began to shake. He caught the eye of two of his team, Jo and Will, and they gave him sad looks. He ignored them, looking back at his son's picture. The image had been cropped and enlarged for identification purposes, but Max's eyes were drawn to the hand on Oscar's shoulder. It was his hand. The image had come from one of only a few photos Max had with his son. He wasn't a photogenic person. Never had been. But Millie had managed, one afternoon, to have a photo taken. It had only been in the backyard, a photo for Oscar to take to preschool and talk about for Parents Day, but Oscar loved it. It sat in his room.

Forcing back any emotion, Max spoke up. "I shot his brother, during a CO19 operation. Marek sent Thomas out with his gun, used him as bait so he could get away. Maybe he didn't intend us to kill Thomas, maybe he did. Either way, he's used it ever since to grow support for his cause against the police. Used it as a sob story to get what he wants – cop shot my brother in cold blood." Max took a breath, catching Millie's look. She gave him a soft, sad smile and he continued. "This isn't just about the drugs, this is personal. He was using his nephew Pawel to get what he wanted done. I convinced Pawel's step-mother Julie Nowak to help us, but when she found out I was the one that shot her husband she was hesitant t…" Max trailed off, stuck on the memories of everything that had happened. Shooting Thomas. The look on Julie's face that day when she'd found out. Having a gun pointed at him by Pawel and having to talk himself out of a bad situation. Every mistake he'd made up until now was coming back to haunt him.

"Jankowski killed Ms. Nowak's uncle, shot him dead. Pawel blamed Max and took him hostage, but Max managed to talk him down. That was when Pawel sold out Marek, admitted what had happened. Pawel had been there when Marek had shot Julie's uncle." Max glanced up to find Millie had stood, continuing the story. "Jankowski was supposed to go away for murder, but during the court case the defence managed to tear apart Pawel, discredit him as a witness. The murder case fell apart, not through lack of evidence but simply because Pawel couldn't face court. He went away for drugs and for the accusations of running a protection racket, but without Julie's uncle as the witness for the protection racket accusation, he wasn't charged on that." Millie took a seat, her explanation done.

"Thank you PC Brown." Neil nodded at her and Millie gave a weak smile. "Now you know the story you can hopefully appreciate better the importance of locating Marek and Oscar as soon as possible. Jankowski is unstable and he bares a strong grudge against…" Neil paused and looked at Max. Max just gave a soft nod. "He bares a grudge against DS Carter." Max sighed and glanced up to find Millie watching him with her top teeth biting a shaking bottom lip. Too focused on her look, he didn't notice the group start to split apart, assigned different jobs, until Jo touched his arm.

"Guv?" Max glanced up at her. He gave a small nod. "We'll get him."

Max nodded again. "Yeah, yeah I know." Both Jo and Will gave him a smile as they left the room. He turned back to find Smithy talking to Millie. She was wiping at her cheeks with her knuckles. There didn't seem to be any tears on them, but she was wiping furiously anyway. It seemed she'd run out of tears, but the tear ducts hadn't told her brain yet. He sighed at the sight of her, wondering how she was managing to put on a brave face through the whole thing. She still had yet to stop surprising him. Even five years later he still wasn't sure what she'd do next. It made for interesting moments, wondering if he'd see the airheaded sop she often was or the tough-talking woman he'd fallen for. She now seemed on the verge of both, desperate to stay tough despite the completely normal reaction to cry. Well, it wasn't normal for him. His natural reaction now was to find Jankowski and kill him. He turned his attention to the picture on the whiteboard. All of this, it all just felt like karma had come to get him. He couldn't help feeling this all could've ended so much better if he'd just… he didn't know what he could've done but he didn't doubt this all had a lot to do with the fact he was impetuous, stubborn and thought himself always right. It was a collection of traits that had come back to bite him before and seemed likely to keep doing so for a while.

But he could deal with it biting him. Biting his son however… well that just wouldn't do.

"Tell me it'll be alright." A soft voice broke his thoughts and he looked away from the board to find Millie standing in front of him. She'd taken his hand but he'd been too far away in his thoughts to even notice. He frowned at her request.

"You heard the DCI, we'll find him."

She nodded. "That's what they're saying, but I don't care what they think, I care what you think." His frown softened as the tears glistened in her eyes. It seemed he'd been wrong – there were still tears there. "I just need to hear you say it Max."

He sighed and pulled her into him, stroking her hair. "It'll be alright." He dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "We'll find him and it'll be alright." The problem was, both of them knew he didn't really believe it.


	14. CH 12: Just Words

**Disclaimer: **I don't own The Bill

**A/N: **Dedicated to MissLaLa73 for being so awesome and writing the most inspirational piece about Noble Fight ever, which, if I'm being honest, left me a little overwhelmed and teary. Yes, I'm a sook… now you know. But seriously, so awesome!

The Noble Fight

  
_Chapter Twelve;  
_Just Words

Lunch came and went but no one moved from his or her allocated position. Seated in front of a computer, scrolling through old voting records to allocate the new homes of Jankowski's old allies, Millie bit her lip as she again failed to find a corresponding name. She looked at the name on the list and crossed it off. Sliding her finger down it, she moved to the next one, determination etched on her face.

Of course she had the menial task of the day but she wasn't surprised. As the missing child's mother she really shouldn't have been there at all. She should be at home with an FLO making her cups of tea and telling her that it would be all right. It would be fine. Would she like another cup of tea? Like another tea would bring her son back.

Tears threatened to well again and Millie bit them back, fluttering her eyelids quickly to stop them escaping. She was currently being watched like a hawk by Roger who she'd overheard being instructed by DCI Manson that if she showed the first sign of cracking he had to take her home immediately and tuck her into bed – or something of that nature. The gist was that if she even gave a hint of a tear she was out of there, so she blinked it back. She was not going home to wallow in her own self-pity, return to where his toys and history were etched in the walls. The hallways still haunted with crayon marks, the dent in the fridge where he'd spent two whole hours banging his head when Millie had refused to give him chocolate pudding for dessert, the badly-repaired coffee table that had broken when Oscar had turned it over, mid-tantrum, with a toddler-style superhuman strength. The damn thing still wobbled if you put the phone down anywhere other than in the centre of it. Max had insisted she throw it out, but after assuring him that their current financial situation just proved that wasn't an option, he had relented and now steadied it every so often with half a deck of playing cards. If he could be bothered that is. He hadn't even fixed it when it had initially broken. She'd had to do that herself one Tuesday afternoon when Oscar was napping. Armed with wood-glue and determination, Millie had done her best and been very proud of the work – until Max came home and proclaimed it still ruined. He'd made his own dinner that night, Millie feigning a headache and going to bed grumpy.

But right now these were moments she wouldn't change for the world. Right now she'd give anything to hear Oscar screaming that he didn't like mashed potato and that he wanted pudding for dinner. Right now she begged for the burning fury of watching Max give in to the child every time he asked for anything, no matter how ridiculous it was. Like the time he'd left the house, in the rain, just to get Oscar a chocolate frog even though when Millie asked for washing powder on a sunny day he'd insist the walk wouldn't kill her.

"Hey, you looked a long way away." Millie gazed up from the list she'd been unintentionally staring at to find Roger standing beside her, concern etched across his face. "Are you okay Mills?"

Millie nodded quickly. "Yeah, just… uh…" she trailed off, struggling to find the right words. "Um, do you know where Max is Roger?"

Roger gave a single nod. "He went with DCI Manson to collect some witness statements in your mum's neighbourhood."

"Of course he gets to leave the office but I'm stuck here," Millie grumbled. Roger cracked a small smile as he heard that and Millie returned it, but it was a teary one. "I'm bored Roger, and because I'm bored I keep drifting off, keep remembering things that, right now, I don't want to remember, it just makes me feel worse."

Roger nodded. "I know; I've been watching you."

"I have to keep busy, I have to help, otherwise I'm going to go mad. So far everyone on this list has either disappeared, not voted since 2004 or has died and I'm quickly starting to suspect that the rest of the names on here will fall into the same category." She looked at him with wide eyes. "Please Roger, please let me do something real."

Roger sighed but gave in. He always gave in to Millie. He couldn't help it. He'd been watching Millie's back for a long time. She was like a little sister, maybe even a daughter, to him and he hated seeing her look so down. He motioned to his desk. "Look, I'm just e-mailing other boroughs with photos of Jankowski and descriptions, spreading the word about Jankowski and Oscar. If you want to help me with that, if you think you're up to it." She nodded. "So far it's been fruitless I'm afraid."

Millie smiled. "I have faith we'll find something." She stood and followed Roger back to his desk. "And right now faith is about all that I have."


	15. CH 13: Brick In The Wall

**Disclaimer: **'The Bill' belongs to iTV, Talkback Thames and Freemantle Media

_Chapter Thirteen:_  
Brick In The Wall

That night was their first time at home without Oscar. Elizabeth had wanted them to stay with her, but Millie had been resolute that she wanted to be at home, try and make some normality out of the mess. Max had stayed at work late, trying to find anything he could on Jankowski's associates, but a little after nine DCI Manson had walked into his office and told him that if he didn't go home then Neil would have no hesitation in demoting him back to DS. He'd taken the hint and left, taking a very large pile of paperwork with him. When he arrived home he found the living room and kitchen empty. He dumped his paperwork on the dining table and headed upstairs, calling out for his wife. He found her in Oscar's room, seated on his dark blue single bed and clutching his teddy JoJo Bear to her chest, tears streaming down her face. Max sighed and sat down beside her, pulling her to him. "It'll be alright, we'll get him back." She sobbed into his shoulder and he could feel his shirt getting wet from the tears, but he just clutched her tighter. If he was honest with himself he'd admit he was struggling just as badly as her and the hug was more to remind himself that he hadn't lost everything that mattered to him yet. Just some of it. But he wasn't the type to admit that to himself let alone to others so he just sat quietly, squeezing her shoulder and letting her cry into him. Eventually she quietened and slid from his grasp.

"You," she sniffed. "You were collecting witness statements?" Max gave a small nod. "How did it go?"

Millie clung to JoJo Bear for support, so tight Max wondered that if Oscar did come back would JoJo Bear still be alive?

He mentally smacked himself. Not 'if' but 'when'. When Oscar came home…

"There, uh, there weren't any sightings." She looked away, hugging the bear to herself again. "It's okay Millie, we'll find him."

"Max, I spent all day in contact with boroughs and nicks all over England. No one has seen Jankowski; no one has had him in their district before. We don't have any idea where he'll go, and that's just England covered. He could go to Scotland, Northern Ireland, could leave the country altogether."

"All airports and ports are on high alert. He's not leaving this country."

"Then," Millie failed to hold back a sob, "then he'll just kill Oscar and go into hiding again." Max made to say something but Millie cut him off. "No Max, no don't say it won't happen because we both know Jankowski. He led his own brother to the slaughter, turned on his own nephew, is very prepared to eliminate anyone that gets his in way and have anyone killed so he may succeed. You think the 3-year-old boy of the two people that put him in gaol would be an exception? It won't be Max. He'll use Oscar as far as he can and then dispose of him. He…" Millie failed, the rant dying away in a coughing fit of repressed sobs. She moved away as Max made to hug her. "No, don't, I just… I…" she failed again and, even though the glare directed at him said one thing, she gripped the bed sheet between them so tight that Max couldn't help but grab her again. This time she let him and stayed there for a few moments until a crash downstairs startled them both into movement.

Motioning for Millie to stay where she was, Max descended the stairs slowly, scanning the lower level for any signs of an intruder. The broken front window indicated where the crash came from – something had been thrown through. He found the item on the living room floor. A brick. A brick with a note tied around it with a piece of twine. Slowly untying the twine, Max removed the note and opened it.

'If you're looking for someone try Nikov Polenski, Southport'

Max frowned at the single sentence. Nikov Polenski? The name was clearly Polish, so did that mean a connection to Jankowski? And Southport? What business did Jankowski have up there?

Dropping the brick he quickly recalled it had been thrown, which meant the thrower may still be outside. Dashing to the front door he pulled it open and ran out into the street. It was empty, save for a neighbour watering his front garden, a kid with a tennis ball wandering the park nearby and a dark red sedan turning out of the street. Max went back inside and shut the door behind him, turning to see Millie, JoJo Bear still in grasp, watching him.

"Max, what's going on?"

Max motioned for her to join him in the living room, stepping slowly over the broken glass. "I'm not sure, but we might have just had a lead thrown right into our laps."

_The Noble Fight _returns next year

**A/N:** The last chapter for this year… yes, go on, egg my house now. Lol. Will be back next year, mid-January hopefully. Till then I hope to see plenty more Mallie love from you guys so mush, mush, mush! ;)


	16. CH 14: Alias

**Disclaimer: **'The Bill' belongs to iTV, Talkback Thames and Freemantle Media

**A/N: **When I asked for Mallie love at the end of last chapter I never expected so much! I am so far behind on my reading now. So if you're reading this and I haven't reviewed yours yet, I apologize. Will do it soon!

_Chapter Fourteen:_  
Alias

Millie joined him going in early the next morning. Once she'd seen the note she wasn't about to take Max's no for an answer. She spent the whole of the ride to Sun Hill just staring ahead of her like a woman possessed, Max certain he didn't once see her blink, so when they finally reached the backyard and Max parked the car, he had to talk some sense into her.

"This may be a false lead."

Millie's eyes searched his face, confusion etched on hers. "How can you say that? It may be the only real lead we'll get."

Max sighed. When he'd first seen the note he'd been hopeful too, but then reality had kicked in. Seemingly these realities hadn't reached Millie yet. "Mill, how many people who are out to help you throw the leads through the front window of your house?" she made to protest but he stopped her with a finger. "No, look, I know you want to think positive but let's be realistic here. I just don't want you to get too upset when it comes to nothing." Her head hung and he touched her cheek. "Come on, it isn't over yet."

"Yeah…" she trailed off, leaving Max to finished the sentence – 'you don't know that for certain'. She slid from his grasp and started up the back ramp, note clenched in her fist. She'd taken it off him that morning and Max didn't have the strength to fight her to get it back. She hadn't slept much of the night, he knew because he hadn't either, both turning fitfully in worry and anticipation for what they may find the next morning. Who was Polenski and what did he have to do with this? How was Southport involved? Was this lead for real? Would this find them their son?

"PC Brown? I didn't expect you in just yet." A Sergeant Max didn't recognize stood before them at the back door, halfway through leaving the building with a PC in tow. Millie gave a noncommittal reply in the form of a shrug.

Max didn't explain anything to the Sergeant, just leading Millie away, pushing her ahead of him through the doors. The Sergeant didn't question the DI and carried on as if he'd seen nothing at all. Max glanced at Millie. "Are you alright to do this?"

Millie shook her head but before Max could suggest she head home then, she responded with a soft but sure tone. "I have to though. I have to find Oscar." Max nodded slowly, knowing he wouldn't be able to get rid of her now even if he wanted to, and so led her past a stream of pitying, sad and confused faces towards the IBO where Inspector Smith was waiting for them, Max having called Neil Manson earlier that morning to tell them they were coming in with new details. Neil had wanted Max to give them over the phone, but Max wasn't taking anything away from Millie. She didn't need to be told Polenski was a lead – she needed to find that out herself.

He hated what she'd feel though if it turned out to be the opposite.

"PC Brown," Smithy smiled softly at her but she didn't manage a reply, "DI Carter requested you be given the usual access to the PNC files, addresses and even Southport's data base. We contacted them and they've sent us the access codes and details. You're free to go through the files at your leisure over there on computer 3. PC Copeland will be assisting you." A cheery-looking young brunette girl smiled and waved Millie over, but she paused before the Inspector, pulling out a folded-up piece of paper. It was the note from the brick.

"This came through our front window last night." Smithy read it quickly then nodded. "Get it to the CSE, there may still be prints." Her words were almost an order, but her tone was so deflated no one took it that way.

"Of course we will." Smithy glanced at Max who just found interest in his shoelaces. "This is who you're looking for? Polenski?"

Millie gave a soft nod and shuffled towards the computer where PC Jennifer Copeland sat waiting, a sad smile still playing on her lips. Smithy handed the note back to Max and the DI sighed, glancing at it. "You're aware the chances of this being a genuine lead are 100 to 1 right?" Smithy said softly, trying to avoid being heard by Millie.

Max nodded dolefully. "I know, but she needs to be involved or I don't know what she'll do." He gave the piece of paper a shake. "I'll get this to the CSE, see what he says."

"What will happen if it is nothing Max? How do you think she'll feel?"

"I don't really want to think about that right now," Max admitted before turning and walking from the room.

*

Three hours later he did find out just that. Millie and PC Copeland had been through every file of every name on the Southport PNC database and there was no name that even sounded like Polenski. PC Copeland had put in a call to Southport's council offices but they wouldn't have any helpful details for a few more hours at least. If this was a genuine lead then Polenski didn't have a criminal record or anything else that tied him rather obviously to Jankowski.

"I knew this was a waste of time," a teary Millie admitted after Max led her to the canteen on the pretence of tea but really to get her away from Smithy's pity-filled sighs and PC Copeland's wide-eyed optimism that the council may come through. Neither were helping Millie and the woman was becoming more and more distressed each minute she spent in the IBO unable to find anything out.

"I shouldn't've let you come in, you're not ready for this yet." Millie sniffled and stared at the steel blue tabletop. They'd obviously just been washed because they were glaringly clean. "Maybe you should go stay with your mother for a while?"

"Is my helplessness cramping your style Max?" she snapped, suddenly very angry. Max leant back in his chair from surprise alone. "Is that it?"

"No! I just, maybe you need to get away from all this crap, let us find Oscar."

Millie stood quickly. "I'm going home before you say else anything I will be tempted to use on you later." She stormed off, Max turning to watch her go as she barged past a bemused looking PC Copeland who stood in the doorway trying to talk to his wife. Max sighed and waved her over.

"Sir, it's not good news. Inspector Smith gave Southport council the bum rush, told them it was to do with a missing kid." Max nodded. "They don't have anyone in Southport named Polenski. Haven't since the 50s they said. I'm sorry." She made her own hasty escape as Max dropped his head into his hands with a sigh.


	17. CH 15: Clues In What We Don't See

**Disclaimer**: I don't own 'The Bill'

**A/N**: All I will say is: I apologise. I offer you no excuses, no explanation, just that I'm lazy! Let's see if I can finish this before I have another brain dead moment…

Chapter Fifteen;  
Clues In What We Don't See

The house was deathly silent as Max returned home later than usual, which was saying something since his midnight returns were usually commonplace.

It was now a little before 2am and Max expected to find Millie asleep upstairs, the couch made up with pillows and one mottled old rug that smelt of mothballs, reserved solely for when Max was in the doghouse but upon entering the living room he found Millie waiting for him, her legs curled under her as she stared through the bottom of a mug of tea as if contemplating whether or not to drown herself in it. Max shut the door softly but she heard him and turned. "Hey," her voice soft, defeated.

Max looked at the floor, summoning the courage to apologize. He hated admitting he was wrong, even to Millie. "Look, Mills, I'm sorry about earlier in the canteen. I know you're worried and I should've been more… well…" he couldn't find a word to end the sentence with, but Millie did.

"Human?" Max glanced up at her, but despite the biting tone she looked neither angry nor defeated, in fact her lips formed a slightly mocking smile. "But if you were human Max, then you wouldn't be you." She patted the couch next to her and Max understood, taking a seat next to her as she put down the tea. "I know what you think, that I'm being stupid," Max made to protest but she shook her head. "Max, don't lie, you're not very good at it." He was quiet. "But I need to do something, anything, as long as I'm busy I don't have to think." She sighed heavily. "I can't even sleep because I can hear his cries. He's crying Max, he's so scared, and he misses us so much." Max grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "He doesn't understand what's going on."

"Millie, we'll find him, he'll be alright." He whispered into her hair that same empty promise he'd been telling himself now since Oscar was taken. He still didn't quite believe it, and was sure Millie didn't either, but it was nice to say something at least. "It'll be o…"

The loud ring of his phone punctuated his sentence and Max flipped it open, glancing once at the name. "DI Carter." He looked sideways at Millie as she sat up, frowning in the hope of good news. He shook his head softly, but it wasn't all bad. "Okay, yeah, sure will. Thanks Roger." He flicked the phone shut. "The council finally found the CCTV footage from the end of your mother's street. Roger's e-mailing it through, wants you to take a look." Millie looked ready to say something about it being against protocol, but Max had already stood and moved towards the computer. Just as he turned it on the ping of a new e-mail came over the small speaker. He clicked it up and enlarged the screen, barely noticing the petite frame of his wife joining him. The video came up instantly, Roger having edited it down to a small section he'd deemed relevant for them to see. It was about the time they believed Oscar had been removed from his grandmother's backyard.

"We can't see Mum's place," Millie whispered, her breath brushing across Max's unshaven face. He glanced sideways at her. "How will we know which one is t…" she stopped, her face turning a pale white. Her lips froze mid-sentence, her expression that much like a fish. Max realised instantly she'd seen something important and stopped the video, pausing on a grainy image of what seemed to be a maroon-coloured sedan.

"What is it?"

"The maroon sedan." Millie tapped the screen. "The days before Oscie was taken there was this maroon sedan out the front of the house. I saw it at the park too, the day you ran off, and when we went to visit my mother."

"What?"

"I mean; I checked the index and all three were different each time. The one parked out the front belongs to the guy down the road. I just thought they were the new trend but now I…"

Max shook his head. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried!" She shook her head. "Would you have listened though Max? Or would you have written me off again, as usual?" She turned away, grabbing her tea off the table. "Just admit it Max. You don't listen to anyone. It's why we're in this mess right now." She stalked off to the kitchen as Max pulled his phone from his pocket and rang Roger back.

* * *

"Inspector Smith," Smithy answered the phone quickly, pressing it between his cheek and shoulder as he flicked through the CCTV footage and a short witness statement that had been e-mailed to him a little earlier by a rather grumpy DI Carter.

"Sir, this is PC Hendricks from Southport."

Smithy nodded though PC Hendricks couldn't see it. "Thanks for getting back to us so quickly. Any information on Polenski?" He grabbed the phone and held it up as he listened, shutting the folder in front of him.

"Yes, we found him sir. There was a slight mix-up with the spelling. It was 'P-A-L' not 'P-O-L' and he doesn't have a record, but we did find a business application for him. The application was lodged two months ago but rejected. He left town not long after that."

"What kind of business?"

There was a brief pause. "A, uh, strip joint sir," the young PC's throat tightened a little as he said that but Smithy just snickered.

"Of course." He shook his head a little. "Okay so who is he then? What do you know about him?"

"Very little sir. I'm faxing you a copy of his business application now. It includes a photo so hopefully that helps, but he never left any kind of forwarding address so we have no idea what's happened to him since then." As he spoke Smithy's fax machine roared to life, eliciting a small whirring noise and heavy 'ding' sound as the page came through.

"Alright, I've got it now. Thank you PC Hendricks." Smithy put down the phone and stepped over to the fax, flicking the page over and staring at the black and white photo knowing perfectly well who it was the minute he saw it.

"Jankowski." He frowned at the familiar face. "Why am I not surprised?"


	18. CH 16: A Man Named Stamos

**Disclaimer: **Mmmmmm Max. I mean, nope, still not mine.

**A/N: **You asked. I answered. For all of you who came back. You people make me so happy!

Chapter Sixteen;  
A Man Named Stamos

For the first time in Max's life, he wasn't the first one out of bed the next morning, finding himself alone as he rolled over and checked the clock to note it was a little after 5am. Something had awoken him and before he even had a chance to figure out what the bedroom light flicked on and Millie appeared in the doorway.

"Inspector Smith just rang. We're needed at the station."

Max nodded and pushed back the covers, watching her walk to the wardrobe and pull out her favourite items of clothing – jeans and a red polo top. Usually when she removed the old clothes Max would complain but today he knew better than to and simply let her wear whatever she wanted. He'd been surprised that the night before he hadn't been sent to the couch but actually allowed near the bedroom. That said, she'd placed a pillow between them and inched as far to her side of the queen-sized as she could, so the cold animosity of the night before reigned still.

"Did he say what about?" Max asked as Millie returned from the ensuite, now brushing her teeth, and he slid out of bed and grabbed the trousers he'd left on a chair the night before. After calling Roger about the maroon sedan he'd found Millie had crawled into bed, pillow fort and all, and wouldn't even talk to him when he came in. He couldn't say he was surprised.

Millie looked up at the question then glared with a look that said 'what do you think?' and Max took it to mean Smithy hadn't mentioned what it was. Typical Smithy – he liked the dramatic reveal. Heading downstairs he grabbed his car keys from the small table inside the front door, not bothering to really wake up, and pulled a t-shirt from the washing pile, noticing Oscar's red fire engine shirt next to it. He pointedly ignored it as he looked up the stairs where Millie was now descending, pulling her hair up quickly, that same frown from the night before etched on her face. Some men would say that when their wife started frowning they hated it, knew they were about to get killed, and opted to run for the hills. Max wasn't like that. When his wife frowned he only wanted to be around to watch what happened next. When she frowned she was all business, the sweet and sometimes daft Millie gone, replaced by someone Max didn't just care about, he respected.

"About the sedan business," Max started and Millie looked up quickly, the frown waning a little. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you." He did seem to be apologizing a lot lately. It still amazed him that Millie could make him feel so guilty about the way he acted. Others had attempted to call him up on it in the past and failed but Millie just needed to go silent for just a minute and he instantly knew what he'd done to cause it.

She took a deep breath and he thought she was about to brush him off but she gave a small smile. "Thank you for apologizing." Then, touching his arm softly, she passed him through the front door. Max took that to mean he was still in trouble and just followed her silently.

* * *

Inspector Smith glanced across at PC Copeland, one of the few in the IBO at this time of the morning, and caught her yawning. "Head off PC Copeland."

She shook her head resolutely. "I'm okay guv. Anyway, my shift ends at 6, I can last." And she didn't yawn again, smothering them so Smithy couldn't see, and he just let her be. After the information had come in from Southport of Palenski's real identity, he'd spent most of the night on connections and allies. The information from Roger about the maroon sedan, which Millie had confirmed had been tailing her for a week, helped seal one connection. A fleet of maroon sedans, four in total, belonged to a local businessman. Elliot Stamos.

Stamos had a rap sheet a mile long, from drink driving to fraud, but nothing big time. He'd also spent two months in Southport. The connection was enough so finally he called Millie.

"Guv?" Smithy turned to the voice from the doorway and smiled at the redhead. She stepped into the room, Max right behind her, and PC Copeland looked up and glanced sideways at Smithy, waiting to give Oscar's parents the information they'd come for. "Is this about the sedan?"

"Sort of," Smithy pulled out a chair and offered Millie a seat. He ignored Max. It wasn't that Smithy disliked Max, he didn't have an opinion on him either way, it was just that Millie had long ago proven worthy of his niceties. In Smithy's eyes (and many others) Max had still yet to prove he even deserved Millie's love. "PC Copeland?" The young brunette stood and handed over a picture, smiling at both Millie and Max in turn, then sitting down again. Max stood behind Millie as she frowned down at the photo. "This came through from Southport last night. This is Palenski." He didn't need to say the rest. They'd already recognised Jankowski. Max put his hands on his hips and looked away as Millie put her thumb to her teeth, an old nervous habit Smithy guessed she hadn't lost yet. Smithy handed her another picture. "And this is Stamos, whom we suspect is a friend of Jankowski." Max glanced up this time and Millie nodded slowly. "We traced him thanks to your confirmation of the maroon sedan." Max's head sunk again at that information but Smithy didn't push it. "We have an address and we're putting together a team as we speak to go get him."

"And how long will that take?" Max seemed to growl out the words.

"About an hour, maybe 90 minutes, but not long." Millie accepted that, just standing slowly, her hands shaking, and turned to face them. Smithy understood. "You want to know what you can do?" She nodded silently as Max walked off, headed for PC Copeland, and the young brunette sunk a little lower in her seat. "Door-to-door will need photocopies of Jankowski's picture for Stamos' neighbours. Can you take care of that?" The task was menial but it seemed to be enough and Smithy was glad as he watched Max lean over the young PC and start talking to her. Taking the photos Millie left, walking quickly, and Smithy went to Max's side. "DI Carter, can I have a word?"

Max looked between Smithy and PC Copeland, the young girl now staring at the table, then stood up straight. "Of course."

Smithy led Max a decent distance from the PC. "Would you mind not harassing my PCs for addresses?" Max started to speak but Smithy cut him off. "I'm not stupid Max, I know what you're doing, but don't. PC Copeland did two straight shifts tonight because she cares about Oscar's safety, we all do, so hounding her into helping you go one-on-one with him isn't a good way to repay her."

Max stuck his hands in his pockets. "I just asked her how it was going." Smithy looked up and caught PC Copeland watching them. "Would you like me to go thank her for her hard work?" The tone was biting and Smithy frowned.

"We just want to help Max."

"I know." He stepped away from Smithy, motioning to the door. "I'm going to make sure Millie's doing okay, not struggling under the petty tasks you've given her, under the pretence of caring of course." And before Smithy could say another thing he'd stalked off.

Smithy shook his head and walked up to PC Copeland. "What did he say to you?"

"He thanked me for helping Millie, with the maroon sedan, and for coming in early to find Palenski." Smithy's frown deepened. "Do you think he's going to do something stupid?"

"It's Max Carter; when he's not doing something stupid, he's not doing anything." Returning to his desk he picked up the phone, intending to check up on the team when Millie walked back into the IBO alone, photocopies in her arms, that usual frown etched on her face. She looked tired, depressed but more than anything, dare Dale think it… lonely. He knew Max, what kind of person he could be when he was driven, and assumed he hadn't let Millie in on everything he knew. But Millie was no fool, she'd always known when she was being left out of the loop, and while Smithy didn't doubt Max had left Millie out to protect her, she still made it clear she needed to be involved. It was why he'd encouraged them both to come in that morning. If Max wanted to leave Millie out of things then so be it, but Smithy wasn't going to, he respected Millie too much to do that.

"Where's Max?"

Millie frowned. "What do you mean?" She put the papers down on a desk nearby and glanced up at him, confusion etched across her face, and instantly Smithy knew. When PC Copeland frowned at her own desk, picking up pieces of paper as if looking for something, he wasn't even the least bit surprised.

"He told me he was coming to help you." Dale shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "You haven't seen him?"

She took a seat as she said it. "He's gone after Stamos hasn't he?" Smithy didn't even need to think about it before he nodded slowly. Millie just rubbed a hand over her face. "Oh Max."


	19. CH 17: Head on a Plate

**Disclaimer: **Let me own you The Bill!

Chapter Seventeen;  
Head on a Plate

Max wasn't too shocked when the address he'd stolen off the PC's desk had turned out to prove fruitless. He didn't think Stamos would be sitting at home just waiting for the police to turn up. Even at this time of the morning, just before the sun rose, the man was nowhere to be seen. A scout of his property gave nothing away either, except a small scraggly dog in his backyard who'd had a serious problem with Max and nearly bit off his foot, so Max returned to his car with a hopeless look on his face and the despondent plan to return to the nick with his tail between his legs.

Until he saw him…

Staggering along the road, chatting animatedly into his mobile phone, was Stamos. He was swaying drunkenly, one finger wedged up his nose, his other hand holding the phone a short distance from his mouth, growling into it as he walked. Max watched him calmly from the inside of his dark green Nissan as he removed his finger from his face and fished into his pants, rattling around inside before pulling out a set of keys, glancing around at the street before he turned his back on it and started to open his front door.

Max used this opportunity to move and opened the door of his car, standing slowly and shutting it behind him, turning to face Stamos.

That was when he felt the hand on his shoulder and he glanced up at Stamos as the man, the drunk act gone, turned with a smile. The hand tightened on Max's shoulder as Stamos stepped down off the step. "DI Carter I presume?"

* * *

Millie scratched at her eyebrow nervously, listening to Smithy's call over the radio describing Max's car and his suspected whereabouts. She was tired and angry with him but more than anything she was scared. Losing Oscar was enough but Max and Oscar? She felt for sure like she'd lost absolutely everything and now she just wanted to sit here, staring at the desk, until news came through that it was fine.

"PC Brown?"

The young, eager PC Copeland smiled at Millie as she put a small cup of tea down in front of her, and Millie assessed the girl. For Millie to call anyone young and naïve would be ironic but there had been a change in Millie since the business with Curtis Jenson and her relationship with Max had started. She was more likely to fight for what she believed in and while she still tried to think the best lay within everyone, she looked just to make sure there wasn't any bad, just in case. She'd been offered a promotion just before she realized she was pregnant, Smithy thinking she'd make a great Sergeant over at Kingmarsh, the nick to the north of Sun Hill, but Oscar had changed that. She remained a PC at Sun Hill until she started maternity leave. The idea of traveling to Kingmarsh every day, the added pressures of being a Sergeant, all just seemed a little too much while Oscar was young. Maybe in a few years when he started school, went off on his own, started needing her less…

The idea of Oscar needing her less made her feel small. She knew children grew and with Max as his father the boy was likely to grow with more self-sufficiency and 'character' (as Millie lovingly called her husband's sometimes harsh and always pessimistic view of modern society) than any other child around, but having him never need her, that scared her. It was a normal maternal trait, one her mother assured her she'd soon learnt to accept, but still she worried.

Of course right now he needed her, needed protection, and she'd failed to give it, she felt worse than she thought she could ever feel. She yearned to hear Max calling down the hallway that Oscar had broken something again. The loneliness she felt when Max and Oscar went off together to do what Max called 'man-stuff'. Even that, feeling like a third wheel in her son's life, was better than this.

She guessed she must have been getting teary when PC Copeland sat down and put a hand on Millie's shoulder. "Hey, it'll be okay, we'll find DI Carter."

Millie smiled bravely. "It's not DI Carter I'm too worried about, he can look after himself, it's how I'll be able to find Oscar without him."

It had always been this way. Millie found trouble, Max solved it, and it just worked. But then Max had got himself locked in that freezer, this business with Jankowski, and suddenly the tables were turned. Millie had to fix Max's mistakes. The pressure was getting hard to bear.

"We'll find him, you've just got to believe we will, be optimistic."

Millie smiled warmly at PC Copeland. She was a breath of fresh air, or least air from the past, and Millie nodded slowly. "You're right. Optimistic." The young girl grinned. "And I'm now optimistic that wherever Max is right now, he's finding answers."

* * *

Max groaned as another steel-capped boot connected with his rib cage. He was pretty certain he'd heard a crack and his breathing became labored. Stamos stood over him again, pushing one of his four heavy-set brutes back, smiling down at his prey. "Okay, your turn Detective Inspector."

He didn't want to play this game anymore, this little thing Stamos called 'your turn, my turn' where every one of Max's questions was met with either a boot or a punch, but he was unable to evade the brutes and at least this way his hospital visit later wouldn't be worthless.

After being grabbed at his car Max had been dragged into the house, through the backyard and into a neighboring lot, a big empty field that was overgrown with weeds. It was still dark, only the early morning light allowing Stamos' heavies to deliver their blows, so the idea of anyone around hearing this and calling the police was unlikely. He was on his own. As usual…

"Jankowski; where is he?"

Stamos shrugged. "No idea." Stamos' northern accent, Max would say a very soft Geordie, made every word sound like a question, rising at the end of each sentence. From another's mouth it may well have been amusing. Right now it was scary. "I cut him loose." Max knew that was 'bad guy' talk for 'we had a falling out and I'm still smarting' but he said nothing. "I don't think I have to tell you that the guy's a few sandwiches short of a picnic."

"Wha…"

Max trailed off as Stamos held up a hand. "Uh uh uh Detective Inspector, it's my turn now." Then, turning away from Max, he called someone's name. Max closed his eyes and waited for the blow.

* * *

"…dark green Nissan, Foxtrot Indigo Whiskey, Four, Two, Four, Indigo. Repeat…"

PC Roger Valentine ignored the blaring radio on his shoulder, having heard the car's description three times now, and kept walking, his early-morning stroll of the main streets of Sun Hill leaving him tired and feeling very old. It wasn't that Roger was counting down the days until retirement, anything but, just that the countdown seemed to be running subconsciously in his head. He tried to ignore it but it stayed there, taunting him, until he found something else to drown it out.

The radio had done that at the start but now…

Roger paused at the entrance to Hordern Lane, a small lane outside the Holbeck Estate, not far from Stamos' property. Naturally, when Max Carter ran off, Smithy had sent everyone straight to Stamos' street. To their disappointment it was bare, not a sign of Max or his car, but now Roger found it parked in a dark part of this little alley. He was surprised it hadn't been found until now and he called it in, checking the alley was clear before moving towards it, assessing the car from top to bottom, peering in the windows.

As the radio told him back-up was on its way he saw the keys discarded by the front tire and he picked them up with a pair of gloves, holding them up and glancing at them before unlocking the car, the Nissan giving a cheery 'bleep' and flashing its head and tail lights as it unlocked. Then a sound issued from the car that usually shouldn't…

A groan had come from the boot.

Moving towards it quickly Roger pushed it open and stared down at the figure with a frown. Then he raised his radio to his lips and called for an ambulance.


	20. CH 18: The Best There Ever Was

**Disclaimer: **The usual…

Chapter Eighteen;  
The Best There Ever Was

When Max woke his eyes burned and everything felt so wrong. The last thing he could remember was coming face-to-face with a large, brutish man with a baseball bat. After that was darkness. The brute had clearly taken out that gap in between.

Opening his eyes slowly he looked up at the white ceiling above him and registered the beeping machine nearby. The hospital. He'd been found. Well, that was a vast improvement on death at least, and he let out a soft sigh, causing his chest to stab at him with a ferocity that made Max actually jolt up to a full waking state. His rib. Damn he didn't need a broken rib right now.

As he moved he saw her, her orange hair tied up in a ponytail, facing away from him. She seemed to be asleep, lying on the bed, breathing softly. He let her for a minute, waiting to see if his movement would rouse her, and then he whispered her name. "Millie." Nothing. "Mill?" Deeming her fast asleep, he touched her softly, feeling the warmth of her head beneath her thin hair. That seemed to wake her and she moved, Max pulling his hand back instinctively. He was unsure why he was so worried about getting caught, she was his wife for god's sake, but he crossed his arms stupidly as she murmured and awoke, turning her head to face him, her eyes flickering open quickly. "Hey."

She smiled. "Hey yourself." Using the bed as support, she pushed herself back into her chair and yawned. "What's the time?" She looked at her watch and frowned.

"How long have you been here?" Max's eyes were caught up in a crease on her cheek that came from lying against the bunched-up covers. She'd been there a while according to that alone.

She yawned again, this time not covering her mouth. "Since you came in yesterday." But she avoided a proper answer and Max was surprised by how much it hurt to have his question remain unanswered and for a second appreciated just how frustrating he must be. "Why didn't you tell anyone you were going after Stamos Max? You were lucky you weren't killed." He shrugged and she answered for him. "Because that's what you do, isn't it?" She sighed and looked away. "Have I told you how impossible you are?" But there was almost a smile in her voice and he could tell she was just happy he was all right, too pleased to be angry with him for now. He took his chance to stay in the good books for a little longer.

"I'm sorry." She caught his eye and gave him a soft smile. "Do you want me to say I won't do it again?"

She shook her head. "Don't even try, I know when you're lying." They stayed silent for a moment, Millie forcing back a few more yawns, before she continued. "They still haven't found him." Max glanced up. "Stamos. After he gave you the kicking you deserved," Max faux-frowned as she grinned, "he disappeared. I haven't had any word from the station so I'm going to assume they still haven't found him."

"It doesn't matter, he doesn't know anything." Max sighed. "He wanted to make that obvious as he was kicking me. Of course he knows Jankowski, but says he's not involved. I believe him."

"So why beat you up then?"

"I was there, I'm a copper. What more reasons do you want?" He gave a soft laugh but as he did his rib hurt again and he grabbed it, pulling a face. "How many broken ribs?"

"Three. Two right, one left. You were lucky not to puncture a lung."

"Yeah, that's me, lucky." Max muttered facetiously, frowning as Millie put a hand on his.

"You were lucky. Lucky Roger found you when he did." Max nodded slowly and squeezed her hand. She smiled. "Stop causing everyone grief!"

"It's good advice." The two of them glanced up as a nurse joined them. "I'm sorry to disturb you but you have another X-ray now."

Max motioned to his ribs. "I don't need an X-ray to tell you they hurt like hell." Millie stood with a smile, her hand still in his.

"No Mr. Carter, you've fractured your leg in three places. Didn't even feel it did you? We had to give you some local for the pain."

"You were whinging like a little girl." Millie teased. He pouted and she just smiled. "You couldn't give him anything for his ribs could you?"

"I'm fine," Max grumbled.

"We'll get you something after the X-ray." The nurse smiled as two orderlies joined her and started unlocking the bed from its base. "If you want to wait here Mrs. Carter he'll be about twenty-five, thirty minutes."

"Mrs. Carter?" Max teased. Millie ignored him.

"I'll come back this afternoon." She removed her hand from his and grabbed her bag. "Don't terrorise the staff."

"I'll try," he returned. With a grin she left, his eyes on her until she was out of sight.

"She wouldn't leave your side. Has been here since seven yesterday morning." Max caught sight of her watch. It was a little after 10. 27 hours. She'd stayed with him for 27 hours and refused to leave? "She's a good woman."

Max gave a small smile. "She's the best."


	21. CH 19: Positives

**Disclaimer: **I own it! I found it in the bin outside ITV! Win!

**A/N: **For Brookii and the observation Max names his kids after the phonetic alphabet. The man has work issues... and other issues. Issues! lol

Chapter Nineteen;  
Positives

As Max unlocked the front door, his ribs groaning a protest as he did, he dumped his overnight bag inside the doorway and looked down the hall towards the kitchen. Millie sat waiting for him, sitting at the kitchen table, flicking through a magazine. She looked up and Max gave her a smile. She raised an eyebrow. "Oh no, you're smiling, who's about to end up in traction?"

Max walked down the hall, leaning on his crutch, but Millie just watched him with a slight smile. "I could ask you the same thing." He pulled out the chair across from Millie and sat down. "And your smile means either good news or Mrs. Anderson baked another batch of cookies."

Millie stood up and went to the fridge. "Good news," she paused and looked back at him. "Oh and Mrs. Anderson baked cookies, they're on the table if you want one." She motioned to the pink box with a garish white ribbon on it. "I think she genuinely believes they'll bring Oscar back." She removed from the fridge. "Tea or coffee?"

"Irish coffee?"

Millie shook her head. "How many painkillers you on?"

"Enough." Max removed a cookie from the box, scraped off the coconut with a butter knife, then ate it. "Better make it tea then."

"Good idea." Millie flicked the kettle on and sat down again, next to him this time, glancing down at his leg. "How long until you're out chasing bad guys down all by yourself again?"

Max caught the slight change in tone. "I'm sorry." He gave her the bottom-lip-stuck-out face and Millie grinned, whacking him in the chest, having already forgotten the ribs. When he groaned she gasped.

"Sorry Max." She touched his rib softly, frowning to herself, and Max raised his hand to hers.

"It's okay." He was quiet for a second then glanced at her. "So, what's the good news?"

Millie withdrew her hand from under his and stood up, making for the kettle, taking two cups from the cupboard above the sink. "A few more leads on Jakowski's business in Southport." Max sat up a little straighter, ignoring the pain. "'Palenski' was part of a business venture, a restaurant, and when he left they started an arm down here." She poured the teas and carried them over. She seemed to pause for dramatic effect. "Arrested two weeks ago for running drugs out of the back kitchen."

Max nodded slowly and picked up his tea. "That was what I was waiting to hear." He took a mouthful then put the cup down. "Stamos?"

"They had a falling out back in Southport, there's a record of a bar brawl, so Inspector Smith thinks it was probably Stamos who sent the brick through our window to let us know about this restaurant connection." She smiled. "You know thieves and how they look out for one another." Max chuckled softly. "And your positive mood?"

Max thought back to his brief stint in hospital, waking up to find Millie there, despite what they'd gone through recently. What more than one nurse had said about her. He just shrugged silently however. "I can't be positive?" Millie raised an eyebrow and drank her tea silently. "Well that's uncharacteristically negative of you." He met her eye with a smile. "So, how long were you at the hospital then… Mrs. Carter?"

Millie swatted his elbow and stood again, carrying her cup back to the sink. "I didn't tell them that, they just assumed." Max nodded slowly, almost mocking. "This really stuck in your craw didn't it?"

"No." Max finished his tea and made to stand but Millie pushed him back down with a hand on his shoulder and took the cup. "I'm just wondering why you never took the name."

Millie leant against the sink and crossed her arms. "Oh come on Max, you know why - because nothing about us is normal." She rinsed out the cups and set them on the counter beside her. "And, honestly, I thought if I didn't take the name it would easier for you to cut and run when you wanted to."

"What?"

She shrugged, her expression impassive. "You only decided to get married after Oscar was born." She held up a hand. "It's okay Max, I'm not bitter about it, I'm not going to send you to the doghouse or something. I accept it." He started to speak but she cut him off again. "I love you and I know you feel the same way about me…"

"Of course I do."

"So there's no problems then." She came back to the table and fished into the box for a cookie but Max grabbed her hand. "Is this your way of saying you want me to change it, that you're not going to run out on me any time soon?"

"Well, I won't be around the next time your mother comes to visit," Millie laughed. "But I'll come back when she's gone."

"It's fine. The next time mum comes to visit I'll be as far away as possible too." She took a seat next to him again. "You must be really popping those painkillers, you're almost nice." He raised his eyebrows and she leant across and kissed him softly. "Nice Max is boring. How long before you're back on the street in full 'Max Mode'?" He frowned. "It's what I call those moments when you're so caught up in self-righteousness you forget anyone else exists."

"If anyone else spoke to me like that I'd hurt them."

"You'd glare at them until they cried, I know, I got that same treatment in the past." She leant her head on his shoulder. "We need to be positive, about finding Oscar, but I still worry."

"It's normal. You worry and think things through and I'll go… what is it? Max Mode? I'll go 'Max Mode' on London." Millie laughed softly. "Sound like a plan to you Mrs. Carter?"

Millie shook her head. "Stop that."

"What? I like how it sounds."

She raised an eyebrow. "That was scarily honest."

"I'm always honest." He pushed himself out of his seat. "Like; your turtleneck sweaters are the worst things I've ever seen, your mother scares me and Mrs. Anderson's cookies are awful."

"Ah, there's my friendly, social and tactful husband." Millie mocked with a smile. Max leant down and kissed the top of her head. "Where you off to?"

"Sleep. Those hospital beds are deceptive. They only look comfortable." Millie let him go knowing he wouldn't accept her help if she offered it and smiled softly to herself as she heard him groan or swear softly with every step he took upstairs. Then, checking her phone for any messages from Smithy, she went back to her magazine.


	22. CH 20: On The Surface

**Disclaimer: **Think if I could afford a cop show I'd buy this failed one? Yes, I would! I love you The Bill!

**A/N: **To my lovely anonymous reviewer: It's not that Millie wasn't concerned about Oscar and was just nonchalantly reading a magazine, it's just that (unlike Max) Millie understands she needs to let others help. She was being no use at the station and trusts Smithy enough to find Oscar for her. Also she knew Max was coming home and wanted to be there for him (because let's face it, Oscar is 50% Millie and therefore 50% sane, whereas Max is… well, Max has issues!) so he wouldn't feel so bad about being a pain in the ass all the time. That's my reasoning but, thanks for the review, feel free to leave a name next time so I don't feel so 'hey anonymous reviewer'. Let me tell you, it's weird to write!

Chapter Twenty;  
On The Surface

Smithy didn't call that afternoon, and Max didn't emerge from the bedroom until well after 7pm, so Millie was left alone for most of the day with just her thoughts. They consumed her when she let them and made her eyes water. She could almost hear little Oscar, begging for his mummy, crying racking coughs that echoed so loudly in Millie's ears that she could actually feel them, as if Oscar were lying against her chest, his little body shuddering with dramas a two-year-old should never face.

It would be in his third birthday in a week. What happened on that day? What would become of the massive party Millie had planned for him?

Last week her only stress about the party had been 'would Max find time to come' but now… would the birthday boy be there? Would Millie be searching for her son that day instead? Would she find him hurt? Would she be burying his tiny body?

She managed to sniff back and hide a fresh wave of tears and fears as the top stair creaked and Millie looked up as Max started down towards her, clutching his left ribs, holding onto the banister tightly. He looked pale and sick, not just injured, but another level of pain. Something Millie wouldn't have recognised on Max's expression had she not seen it in her own eyes every day of the week.

"What did you see?"

Max looked up quickly, surprise evident in his expression, and then as he reached the bottom of the stairs he spoke. "He wanted to know why I could save everyone else but I couldn't save him."

Millie stood up and quickly came to Max's side, hesitating as she stopped beside him, suddenly unsure what to do that would work the best. Max wasn't a hugger, not even one for rather obvious attempts at comfort, so in previous times Millie had relied solely on the right words. But they'd never been in this situation before. She felt, in its simplest meaning, awkward. "Max, I…"

Then he shocked her. He pulled her to him and wound his arms around her, pressing his cheek to the side of her head, kissing her just above her ear. "You don't need to hear this Millie, I know you're going through enough, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I want to know this stuff Max." She pulled away and gave him a brief smile. "If only to feel a little vindicated after years of convincing people my husband is not a soulless robot."

"Maybe just a little soulless?" He managed a smile. Millie shook her head just a bit. "Are you coming up soon?"

"Max, it's only early I have things to do before I…"

"Please."

Millie didn't bother trying to hide the surprise on her face. Max wasn't asking her when she was coming up; he was hoping she would so he didn't have to lie in bed alone letting his thoughts overtake him. For the first time in all the time Millie had known him, Max was asking for her help, her comfort. To deny him that would be beyond cruel. "Of course. I'll be right up." And as he shot her a brief smile and started back upstairs Millie hid her own smile. Then, flicking off all the downstairs lights, she followed him up.

* * *

Max was awoken the next morning by the sharp, stabbing pains in his chest and, even before opening his eyes, he rubbed at them vigorously. The pain subsided for just a second but the minute he stopped to catch a breath, it quickly returned, and he gave a low groan.

"Stop touching them, you'll only make the pain worse."

As Max's eyes flickered open at the voice, Millie walked from the ensuite, drying her hair with a towel, her slender frame covered by a bathrobe. Max made a point of voicing a disappointed groan and Millie shot him a smile then threw her damp towel at him. "Get up!" The towel landed on his legs and he kicked it off him, sitting up slowly, rubbing at his ribs one more time before pushing himself to his feet. As he stood he heard the doorbell and shot it a look, preparing to ignore it, but Millie was watching him and when it sounded again a minute later she waved him from the room.

Starting downstairs slowly, pulling on jeans as she did, Max glanced through the small window on the door and saw two figures on his doorstep. He pulled the front door open cautiously. "Yes?"

The two uniformed police officers nodded with a small frown. "Guv," Max glanced at their uniforms for names. Duncan and Emmanuel. He didn't know the names. "Is PC Brown in?"

Max motioned to them lazily. "What nick you from?"

"Barton Street." The taller, dark-haired one did all the speaking. The one named Emmanuel. His eastern European accent was quite thick but his English was good. "But we're working for Inspector Smith for the week, for the joint investigation."

Max nodded slowly. Something in him didn't trust the situation, it seemed off somehow, but their story worked. He turned back to the stairs. "Millie?" He glanced back at the officers. "She won't be long. What's this about?"

"We're not sure, Inspector Smith just sent us to get her, something important."

Max crossed his arms over his bandaged chest. "And it didn't concern me?"

"You're on sick leave Max, stop thinking Smithy's out to get you." Millie answered, coming down the stairs two at a time, her wet hair tied up in a ponytail, she passed Max to the doorway. "Yes?"

"You're wanted at the station." Max said, cutting over the PC about to speak, his tone gruff and serious. He couldn't shake that feeling…

Millie nodded and the officers stepped away from the doorway, expecting her to follow, as Millie glanced back at Max. "Stay out of trouble!"

Max took a hold of her hand. "Do you know these two? They give me the creeps." He motioned back to the officers. Millie frowned. "Duncan and Emmanuel, you heard of them?"

Millie's frown deepened and her brow furrowed. "Duncan, no, but I heard Emmanuel on the radio when you ran off to get Stamos. Thick accent, kind of gruff." Max nodded. That sounded like Emmanuel. "They're Barton Street, you're not supposed to know them, they're the enemy remember!" With a smile she gave him a quick kiss. "I'm just going to Sun Hill Max." Then, extracting her hand from his, Millie followed the uniformed policemen to the car. Max shut the door behind them intending to follow her to Sun Hill whether Smithy wanted him there or not.


	23. CH 21: Taken

**Disclaimer: **Unsurprisingly I'm running out of ideas for these disclaimers. I know what I'll do! I'll give it a blue hue, add some lame storylines and make it shit!

**A/N: **Because I like kidnapping people and let's face it… I'm a bad person!

Chapter Twenty-One;  
Taken

"What've we got?" Max walked into the IBO with his usual imposing nature, not one inch of it lost by the limp or the way he held himself in the same position as he walked, lest his ribs attack him again. Smithy turned away from the wall of CCTV footage, frowning at him.

"What are you doing here Max? You're on sick leave."

Max waved the question away. "I don't get sick." He stepped up beside Smithy. "What's going on?"

"Two police officers were beaten up on the Larkmead this morning. They're still in hospital. One's pretty bad. He might not make it."

Max swore softly. "Hope the judge throws the book at them."

Smithy shrugged. "Gotta find their attackers first. You'd think it wouldn't hard since they stole a police car but they knew what they were doing - disabled the tracking device and everything." Max glanced sideways at Smithy, that uneasy feeling returning again. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"I came to see..." he started to explain but a camera shot had caught his eye. It was the intersection at the end of his street. "Do you have footage from camera 45B at 9:57 this morning?"

Smithy nodded and went to the computer nearby, pulling up the hour. "Sure, why?"

"Because I've been here a minute now and you still haven't pawned me off to Millie." Smithy frowned. "She's not here is she?"

Inspector Smith stood up slowly. "Of course she isn't." He came to the hour and pressed play. Two minutes later the police car went through the intersection, driving calmly, the drivers still well in control.

The constricted feeling in Max's chest wasn't his ribs this time. "The officers in hospital are PCs Duncan and Emmanuel, aren't they?" Smithy nodded slowly, looking at the footage too as it looped over the police car driving through the intersection again and again. If Max looked closely he could see Millie's figure in the back seat. "They turned up at my house this morning and took Millie from right under my nose." Max crossed his arms and sat down heavily.

* * *

Max had used facial composition software before, but it had never been so personal, nothing like this. He was halfway through the second man, the man identifying himself as 25-year-old PC Timothy Duncan, when the reality hit him exactly what had happened and just how close he'd been to stopping it.

"I knew something was up," Max muttered, the young PC Copeland glancing across at him, giving him a slight frown. "The minute they turned up. I should have stopped her going."

PC Copeland stopped filling in the computer composition and turned on him. "I'm going to give you the response I imagine Millie would give you – you didn't know."

Max gave a brief smile. "Sounds exactly like her." He looked back at the computer. "Small scar on his right cheek." PC Copeland added the scar. "Yeah, that's him." She hit print and the image rolled out. At the same time she copied the image into the facial recognition software, alongside the first image of 30-year-old 'PC Derrick Emmanuel', and clicked 'search'. "Would you like a drink PC Copeland?" Max asked, pushing his chair back, eager to find these two scumbags but too antsy to stay sitting.

"I'm alright sarge." Jennifer stayed staring at the computer screen. "You can go. I'll come get you when there's a hit."

"Thanks." Max was halfway out of the IBO when he saw Smithy coming towards him.

"How's the E-fit?"

"Done." Max stopped. "When PC Copeland gets the names, I wan…"

Smithy cut him off. "I know what you're going to say and the answer is 'no'. I'm not going to have another case of chasing up your mess and then having to explain to Millie exactly why her husband is lying in a hospital bed… again."

"So the fact I'm even asking you for a way in means nothing?"

"It doesn't mean nothing Max. It means you've grown as a human being and I'm very touched." Smithy muttered as facetiously as he could muster. "But my answer is still no."

"You're an i…"

PC Copeland stepping into the hall saved Max from saying the wrong thing. "Guv?" She looked between the two Inspectors. "We have two hits."

CrimInt showed them two very familiar faces, Duncan and Emmanuel, real names Joseph Reouth and Elliot Djovnik. "Joseph Reouth, 27, Hungarian, two counts of aggravated assault. Elliot Djovnik, 32, Russian, burglary and grievous bodily harm. They sound like lovely men." Smithy frowned at the computer. "Anything about Jankowski on their file?" PC Copeland shook her head. "Of course not, that would be too easy."

"Doesn't matter; I saw them, they've almost killed two PCs, what else do we need?"

"How about proof?"

Max glared right back at Smithy. "Pretty easy to rely on the textbook when it's not your wife and son that's been taken by a madman." Smithy missed it but PC Copeland didn't – there was hurt and helplessness in his tone. He took a deep breath and looked away, crossing his arms across his chest defensively. "Fine, what are you going to do?"

"Step one – find a link to Jankowski and step two – find out where the hell they've gone." Smithy looked up as Max started to walk from the room. "Then… where are you going Max?"

"To do some real police work – find that dumped police car."

Smithy glanced across at PC Copeland as she stood. "Want a babysitting job?"

"Me?"

"I think you remind him of Millie." Smithy motioned out of the door. "Go have fun stopping him getting him killed." PC Copeland trudged after Max. "Enjoy!"


	24. CH 22: Our Histories

**Disclaimer: **Owned by my serious lack of muse for LOTOS and too much for this! Bizarre? Yes!

Chapter Twenty-Two;  
Our Histories

They'd been driving for half an hour, where Jennifer did not know (and she guessed Max didn't either), before she finally spoke. "How did you meet?"

Max glanced across at her with a blank look. "What?"

"You and Millie." The blank look stayed so PC Copeland nervously continued. "I just thought you might like to, I don't know, talk about her."

Max gave something that some may call a small smile but Jennifer suggested more was a smirk. "Because that's what they do in the TV shows right?" He looked back at the road. "But I'll answer, just to play along. We met through work. She's a PC at Sun Hill, remember?"

PC Copeland hid her embarrassment. "Oh, right, yeah I knew that, I mean how did she…"

"How did a pretty, smart, young thing like Millie end up in the arms of Sun Hill's most irrational, impossible DS?"

"I never said that guv!" Jennifer's tone rose a little in surprise. She'd only been at Sun Hill for two months but had already ascertained that the beginning of Max and Millie's marriage was still something of a mystery.

"You wouldn't be the first." But this time there was a genuine smile lingering at the corner of Max's lips and as he continued there was, dare say it, a fondness in his tone. "You'd have to ask Millie for certain, all I know is that we worked a few cases together, she had a rough time with some run-ins with some bad guys and I seemed to time it right."

"Sounds like fate."

Max glanced at her sideways. "Hopeless romantic right?"

Jennifer shrugged unapologetically. "Something like tha…" she was cut off as Max's phone rang for the third time since they'd left Sun Hill. The first two times had been Smithy calling to assure Max they had Reouth's place watched and that if Max knew what was good for him then he wouldn't go there, but this time Max actually pulled over as he saw the name on the phone. He pressed it to his ear without a word to Jennifer and she frowned. "What?"

Max shushed her then frowned, ignoring the traffic roaring past them on the busy Canley High Street, just staring at the wheel. After a second his eyes widened a little and he glanced across at Jennifer. "Millie? Is that you?"

Jennifer gasped and grabbed her phone, calling Smithy as Max continued to converse softly with his wife, asking if she was okay, had she seen Oscar, where was she? As Smithy came on the line Jennifer took Max's phone straight from his hand and turned on loudspeaker. She motioned for Max to continue and after a momentary glare in her direction he did so. "Repeat what you just told me Millie."

"They want me to call you and tell you I'm okay." There was a thump nearby and Max guessed Millie's hostage-takers were nearby. "And that if you want me and Oscar back you should head home and wait."

Max glanced across at Jennifer. "They're waiting for me at home?"

Millie paused for a moment then gave a brief answer. "Just enjoying the view." Max frowned as Jennifer tried to hide the confused look on her face. "Max, please, just do what they tell you to." There was a scuffle at the end and Max took the phone in one hand, his finger hovering over turning off loudspeaker. Briefly Millie returned. "I'll be okay if you do what they say. Just…"

Max turned off loudspeaker then and pressed the phone back to his ear, ignoring Jennifer's look, just frowning into the phone. "Okay, yeah, of course." His jaw set then as Millie spoke again. "I know, I…" he stopped with a frown and lowered the phone. "She's gone."

"What'd she say?"

Max paused then glanced at her quickly. "Nothing important." He dropped the phone back into the space between the two front seats and started the car up again.

"Where are we going?" Jennifer asked, ignoring Smithy's voice coming through the phone. The Inspector had already guessed Max's intended destination. "You know it's a trap don't you?"

"Of course, Millie told me it was." He looked at Jennifer and she guessed Millie's random quote about 'the view' was just that – a warning Max and Millie had created a while ago. "Doesn't mean we can't beat it. I know who has her and I've dealt with him before so I can reason a way out this."

"Oh yes, because Jankowski seems like such a reasonable man."

Max glanced across at Jennifer as she let out the outburst. "You sound like Millie." Jennifer's frown left as she saw the hurt in Max's eyes. "I have to get her out of this." Jennifer glanced down at the phone in her hand. "Either you help me or you don't."

Jennifer flicked the phone shut and turned it off. "Inspector Smith told me to stop you getting yourself killed so, I best stay in, right?"

Max nodded. "Thanks." Then, pulling back out into the traffic, they started back to his house.


	25. CH 23: Reunion

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing!

Chapter Twenty-Three;  
Reunion

"Do what I say." Max's voice dropped to a whisper as they got nearer the house. He cast Jennifer a look sideways and caught her brief nod. "If they're in the house they can't see back here, hence that posting." Max motioned to the man standing by the back gate. The pair stood in a small alleyway across the road from the back entry to Max and Millie's house and had been there for two minutes watching the place before Max had decided to move. The main plan of attack was to enter from the back while Jennifer pulled up out the front in Max's car in a bid to distract them. Whether it worked or not, Max was determined to get inside, certain that Jankowski would be waiting for him.

"So how are we going to take him anyway?" Jennifer motioned to herself. "I'm still in my uniform and we can't exactly change how you look."

"He's not going to see his attacker." Max motioned to a ramble of bushes behind the backyard guard. "Oscar asked me, three months ago, to build him a cubby house. When I wouldn't he made his own. You can access it through a hole in the back fence and wiggle through the bushes right behind the guy."

Jennifer frowned. "I'm going into the bush aren't I?" Max nodded blankly. "If you stay at Sun Hill I'm transferring to Barton Street after this." Then, giving him a half-frown, she started off towards the back of the house, trying to stay out of sight of the man. Max lost sight of her when a white van crossed his path and stopped outside his house. He barely noticed it, watching his house intently, but the moment he stepped out of the alleyway he wished he had.

"Max?" Max raised his eyes at the sound of his name and turned. There, standing at the other end of the alleyway where he and Jennifer had entered, was Millie. A large man, the 'policeman' Max recognised as Reouth, was holding her collar, a handgun pressed to her neck. Max was stuck for what to do. She shook her head slowly. "You shouldn't have come."

"She's right you know." A thick accent floated in from behind Max and he turned to see Djovnik standing there, a gun pointed directly at Max's face. "You best come with me before your friend gets back." Then, with a smile, Djovnik stepped forward and grabbed Max by the collar. Max just raised his hands slowly and did what he had to.

...

"You have a plan, I can see it in your face." They'd been in the van for 30 minutes before Millie spoke. "What are you going to do?"

Max looked at her slowly. "Are you okay?" Millie nodded. "Have you seen Oscar?"

Millie shook her head. "No. When we left home we went straight to get coffee. They bought me a coffee, I didn't even think and… well, I woke up on our living room floor with them shoving a phone in my face and telling me to call you."

"They drugged you?"

"You sound surprised. If they work for Jankowski then this is pretty much tame for them." Millie frowned and lowered her voice. "Your plan – what do you need me to do?"

"Stay out of the way."

Millie glared at him. "You're kidding right? I'm helping you so tell me what to do!"

Max's expression softened and then he leant in and kissed her forehead. "Okay, here's the plan."

...

The fact neither had planned for what was to come was just proof Jankowski had overestimated his henchmen. Djovnik pulled the back door of the white van open, his eyes falling on Millie sitting there, watching him silently. Before he could even register that Max wasn't within his line of sight he took a boot to the side of the head and fell to the ground. Instantly Millie jumped out and grabbed Djovnik's gun, flicking off the trigger and turning it towards the right side of the truck. Reouth was still out of sight and Max stepped out from the side of the truck to try and lure him out.

"Reouth. I'm going to shoot your friend if you don't get out here soon."

Reouth stepped down from the right hand side of the truck and was met with Millie waving a gun at him. "On the ground, hands on the back of your head." Reouth did as he was told and Millie pressed the toe of her shoe into his back. "Max!" Max appeared behind Millie and took Reouth by his shoulders, pulling him to his feet.

"Anyone else here?" Reouth shook his head but Max didn't trust him. "Where's the truck keys?" He patted the man down and removed the keys from his right pocket, handing them to Millie. In the same move he took the gun from her. "Take the van and get back to the station."

"What are you going to do?"

Max pressed the gun into the back of Reouth's neck as Djovnik began to stir. "Hold them until you get back-up." He waved her away with one hand. "Now go." With a nod Millie rushed out of sight to the front of the van and Max looked back down at the men. "So, who wants to tell me first where Jankowski is?"

But his question remained unanswered as Max turned at the sound of a scream and found a man almost twice his size holding a knife to Millie's throat. He gave a cold warning and Max had to obey. Drop the gun, get on your knees and put your hands on your head. Max did as he was told, his eyes trained on the knife the whole time, praying he wouldn't have to watch anything happen to his wife. Nothing did and a minute later Reouth held the gun and was pointing it at the back of his head and the large man lowered the knife with a cold smile. He ordered Max to stand and again he had to obey, but this time they didn't threaten Millie, instead just shoving her in his direction. He caught her as she stumbled off balance and she buried her head in his shoulder, her breathing laboured. Max ignored the men with the gun behind him and focused his question on the large man.

"What do you want with us?"

The large man smiled. "I don't want anything with you. I'm just babysitting until the boss gets here." He sheathed the knife and nodded to the men behind them. "Show our guests their room." Then, with a prod in the back from the gun, Max led Millie away from the broad-smiling man and in the direction their hostages now directed.


	26. CH 24: Never A Way Out

Chapter Twenty-Four;  
Never A Way Out

As soon as the door closed on them, Millie spoke. "I'm sorry Max, this is my fault. I dropped my guard."

"It's not your fault." He took a turn of the room three times and tested the door a good five or six times before giving up. It was well and truly locked. "You told me it was a trap, you did your best." He glanced back at her. She sat on a small camp bed, her elbows pressed into her knees, her chin in her hands. It was the only furniture in the small, dark room. "So now we wait."

"For what? The cavalry? No one knows we're here."

Max sat down next to her. "PC Copeland does. She's been helping me."

"She has?" Millie glanced up at him. "You accepted help?"

"You sound surprised."

"I am surprised. I had to save your life before you'd let me help." She gave half a smile. "You're getting soft in your old age Max."

"We'll just say I'm keeping bad company." He smiled back at her and put an arm around her shoulder. She leaned into him.

"What are we going to do? They're clearly waiting for Jankowski but, then what?"

"Ideally they're waiting for Jankowski." Millie glanced up at him with a frown. "But I know Marek and this doesn't seem his style." He shook his head. "I know what you're going to say but really, this is all too novice, Jankowski's a professional at this stuff. He's not the goon and white van type. He's cunning."

"I think you're giving him too much credit."

"Never underestimate your enemy, rule number one, never assume they're lesser than you." He looked down at her and noticed her frown had stayed. "What?"

"You always underestimate me."

Max actually smiled at that. "Two reasons for that… one: you're not the enemy. And two, if you'd stop clearing that very high bar I set, you might be okay." She smiled back. "Now genius, surprise me again by helping me work out a way to get out of here."

…

"PC Copeland?" Her shoulder shook. "Jennifer?" Jennifer flicked her eyes open and blinked into the sunlight. Two figures stood over her and, her vision out of focus, she automatically panicked, but then one of them spoke. "Are you okay Constable?"

Jennifer blinked a few more times before the vision returned and she saw PC Valentine and Inspector Smith standing above her. Roger offered her a hand and she took it, allowing him to pull her to her feet. "Uh, I think so." She rubbed her eyes as the memory started to slowly return. "The white van, I remember the white van, it was…"

Roger glanced over at Smithy and he nodded. "Max is gone, his car is the next street over, and we found you in the bushes outside his house unconscious. It's not hard to guess you decided not to listen to me and opted to go after Millie yourselves?"

PC Copeland gave a weak smile. "DI Carter is very persuasive."

Smithy shook his head a bit. "It was going to happen eventually, at least now we have a lead to go on." Smithy gave the impression of taking the whole thing in his stride but it was all an act. His hand shook a little as he flipped open his notebook. "What happened?"

"Max sent me to distract the henchman posted over here at the back gate," she motioned to the gate nearby. It sat swinging open now, the house empty, cleared of whoever had taken Millie. "Wanted to face Jankowski himself."

"Typical Max." Smithy looked up at PC Copeland. "You know it was Jankowski?"

"Well, no, he just assumed it was. I mean, Jankowski took his son, it's highly likely he took Millie too, right?"

"It's a safe bet. So, what next?"

"I saw the white van stop outside the house. They weren't half obvious about it either so I thought 'they've underestimated us'. I was wrong. As I stood up to get a proper look at it I was hit from behind. The rest is black until just now." She shrugged. "Sorry guv."

"It's fine, I blame Max, and I'll kill him when he gets back from his hero mission for the day."

"No offence guv but this isn't just another 'hero' mission, this is his family, and I can't honestly say I wouldn't do the exact same thing."

Smithy glanced at the PC. "You'd get yourself kidnapped too, just to make a point?"

PC Copeland shook her head. "No, and if I did I'd at least write down the rego fi…" she trailed off then smiled. "I got it. I remember now. When he hit me I remember feeling the pen stab me in the arm." She pushed back her sleeve and there five numbers and letters were written in pen. The seven at the end finished with a spot of dried blood. "It's only partial but," she glanced at it. "Whiskey, Delta, Six, Zero… or that might be Oscar… Seven."

Roger took Smithy's note on the two options and wandered off, his radio to his lips, as PC Copeland rolled down her sleeve. Smithy crossed his arms and frowned at her. "I'm putting you back on desk duties until Max can stop persuading you to let him get away with murder."

She shrugged. "I've had my hero moment for the week guv. I promise I'll be good." She shoved her hands in her pockets. "Plus you know me, love that paperwork." She started off.

"PC Copeland?" She turned back to Inspector Smith with a half smile. "You did alright today."

"We can judge that if DI Carter gets back." Then, with another soft shrug, she walked away.

…

They sat there for almost 40 minutes, just talking about Jankowski, the whole ordeal and the best way out, before Millie yawned. Max rubbed her arm. "You better get some sleep."

"What about you?"

Max hid his yawn. "I'm fine." He made to stand up and give her the camp bed but she put an arm across his chest, motioning that he should stay.

"You need to rest Max, it's been a long day." So Max did as he was told and laid down, one arm under his head as a pillow, and Millie curled into his side. "This is going to sort itself out, it's going to be okay," she paused and her next question told Max she was fishing for words of comfort, no matter how empty. "Right?"

Max stroked her hair as she laid her head on his chest. "It's going to be okay." The words came out instinctively, little emotion to them, but as he felt a small shudder shake Millie's petite frame he could only sigh. He stared at the ceiling above him, hearing and feeling Millie's breathing slow, sleep start to overtake her. He would not sleep tonight though. He'd stay awake in case anything happened; keep her safe, the least he could do. He lowered his eyes, looking through slitted eyelids down at her, unable to see her face. "Whatever happens," his tone softened and his voice lowered. "Whatever happens, I love you Millie, we'll get through this."

He thought she was already asleep, that his little confession could remain unheard, but she replied softly. "I know Max." She reached for his hand and he let her take it, clenching it tightly in hers. "I know." As her last words softened, depression and sleep overwhelming her, Max went back to staring at the ceiling, just listening to his wife's soft breathing, hoping to God he was right. Everything had to be okay. It just had to be.

He didn't know what he'd do next if it weren't.


	27. CH 25: The Other Guy

Chapter Twenty-Five;  
The Other Guy

Max opened his eyes slowly, something telling him to wake up, that he'd already broken the first promise he'd made to himself. He was pathetic like that.

Millie was still asleep, he could tell without even looking at her, but as he moved she gave a small murmur. He shifted himself away from her but she stayed asleep, even as he got out of the camp bed and stood up, stretching a little. He felt old, tired, so much so that it almost overwhelmed the anger at Jankowski and his accomplices, or whoever it was that was behind this. He didn't know why but he felt certain it wasn't Marek. It just didn't seem like him. Oscar, yes, that stank of Jankowski, but white vans and goons? That seemed so amateurish for him.

Max frowned. Maybe Millie was right? Maybe he was overestimating Jankowski? Had he, somewhere along the line, had started seeing Marek as his arch-nemesis like that out of a DC Comic? A dark mirror of himself? The Voldemort to his Harry Potter? Dalek to his Doctor? Green Goblin to his Spiderman?

Max shook his head. No. Whatever Marek Jankowski was, smart or overestimated, he had Oscar and he may well have Max and Millie now too. That was enough to be worth hating.

Max's thoughts were waylaid when he heard voices outside the door and he turned to it, frowning as a key turned in a heavy lock and the door gave a soft shudder. Max readied himself to do whatever needed to be done when the door opened but as he did, and he saw who stood beyond, he stepped back a little in surprise.

"You?"

…

"Here we go." Roger Valentine re-entered the room with the name. "Andrei Yakov, he owns the white van." He leaned past PC Copeland and typed the name into the PNC computer. "Registration are having a slow day today." A photo came up of a heavyset man who strongly resembled a troll. "He has form."

Smithy nodded. "What is it?"

"You're gonna like this guv – suspected drug dealing from a small London-based restaurant."

"Just like Jankowski's men in Southport. Does he have ties up north?"

"Not that I can see."

PC Copeland shoved him aside. "Here, let me at it, this is where I shine."

Roger stepped out of her way with a chuckle. "Yes ma'am." He took a seat at a desk nearby. "I should go help uniform find this van."

Smithy nodded. "Sounds like a good idea, we need as many bodies out there as we can, as soon as you're ready PC Valentine. Walking beat, take whomever you want." Roger gave a brief nod, slapped PC Copeland on the arm, then left.

A minute after he left there came another voice. "Got it." PC Copeland spoke up, sitting a little straighter, and Smithy crossed his arms as he listened. "In 2004 Yakov worked in a small restaurant in Birmingham. He only worked there for three months and then he quit and moved on to set up his own restaurant, the one that was caught dealing from the back rooms. Yakov couldn't be connected to the dealings so he didn't get long. Ten months. When he was released he went back to Birmingham to the first restaurant."

"That's where Jankowski comes into it?" Smithy asked.

PC Copeland shook her head. "Jankowski was still in gaol in 2005." She frowned. "I don't think Jankowski is even behind this latest stunt. The whole thing is the normal MO for someone else, the guy who ran the first restaurant, who hired Yakov - Newcastle man Elliot Stamos."

…

"Me!"

"Stamos." Max breathed.

The dark-haired man smiled. "Miss me DI Carter?"

"Where's Jankowski?"

Stamos stepped into the room, pulling the door shut behind him, the slam of the door waking Millie from her sleep. She murmured, rolled over, and opened her eyes. Stamos gave her a little wave. "Mornin' darlin'." She narrowed her eyes at Stamos, glancing at Max, then sat up. Stamos looked back at Max. "As I've told you before – Marek and I aren't friendly anymore."

"Then why take Millie?" He waved towards his wife nonchalantly. "Why hold us here?"

"It's a long story, a simple one really, but let's see if I can make it simpler. Eleven years ago, when you were an eager young constable with SO19, you managed to kill, in the line of duty, not one… oh no, one is never enough… but two people. One was Thomas Jankowski." Max frowned at Stamos as the man paced slowly around the room, passing Millie who watched him with furrowed brows. He'd never told her there were two deaths to his name, she only knew about Jankowski because they'd worked together that first case when he'd returned. Max was still a closed book about some things, even with his family, and the deaths to his name was one of those topics. "The other was Sarah Hatton."

Max could still remember Sarah, an unstable young woman with a kitchen knife and a crowded street of shoppers in east London, it had been her or them. "You knew her?"

"'Victims of SO19' was how Jankowski and I crossed paths. There was about five of us, met up in Birmingham to plan the best revenge, and when I heard Marek's story I felt his pain. See, Sarah was my cousin. Poor little thing she was, nasty step-father, drunk mother. Girl never got a break. She was nineteen when she was shot down in cold blood. Did you know that?" Max ignored Millie's sniffling and gave a small nod. "But, just more SO19 cannon-fodder, right DI Carter?"

"So you and Marek caught up after he was released and went 'okay, time for Max to pay', right?"

Stamos turned on Max with a frown. "For the seven billionth time, I'm not working with Jankowski, you got that?"

"So this is a coincidence, you turning up to take Millie the same time Marek took my son?"

Stamos stepped towards him. "I don't believe in coincidences." The door behind Max opened and the heavyset guy stepped inside, followed by Reouth. "When Jankowski got out he told me he was coming after you, so I staked out your house, watched your pretty wife, waited to see what he'd do. See, I wanted to come mess with you a bit, but Jankowski wouldn't play the game. He's a 'shut up and shoot' kind of man." He beckoned Reouth forward and the man grabbed Max, pulling his arms up behind him, as the big man pulled Millie to her feet. "We fought, he took Oscar to prove he could, then told me the competition was on."

"The competition?" Max was hesitant to ask but knew he should anyway. It was what Stamos obviously wanted.

"Yeah. Jankowski overestimated you Max, taking Oscar and only leaving you small clues, none of which you noticed. Me? I like mind games and big guys with gruff European accents." He grinned. "And the game of 'who kills Carter first'? I like to win." He stepped forward and punched Max in the diaphragm, winding him, and he doubled over. "Take him." Reouth nodded and dragged Max from the room. Stamos looked back at Millie, now held tightly by the big guy, one hand pressed over her mouth. "Sit tight sweetheart, I'll be back soon." He pulled the door shut behind him as he left.


	28. CH 26: On The Edge

**Disclaimer: **I own… your soul! But not The Bill. I wonder if ITV wants to swap?

**A/N: **For those of you holding out hope Oscar will be returned soon… ha ha… nope!

Dedicated to feebee for her faith... and how it's about to be led awry.

Chapter Twenty-Six;  
On The Edge

Smithy hammered on the front door of Stamos' small inner-city home. Behind him two police cars blocked the road and three officers stood around each one. Another car was at the back of the flat with four police, including Roger Valentine, blocking the back door. Smithy knocked again then stepped back so PC Hartford with the battering tool could step forward. The door burst open on the third hit and smacked into the wall behind it with a thud. Smithy, asp flicked out, rushed into the flat.

"Stamos?" The house was quiet. "Elliot Stamos, it's the police."

But the place was empty.

Smithy paused in the main hallway as the others spread out around him. Roger passed through from the back of the house and paused at the bottom of the stairs as Smithy was called into the living room. Roger followed to find PC Hartford holding up a folder. Smithy took it off Hartford and opened it, finding a pile of photos inside, the people within them very familiar.

Smithy picked the top one off and read it aloud. "Millie and Oscar, August 4th, Mrs. Brown's house." The photo showed Millie, a young Oscar wiggling in her arms, walking into her mother's place. There were others – Oscar on play equipment, Max coming home from work, Millie hanging out the washing, Max and Millie talking in the front yard. The dates ranged from September two years earlier until as recent as three weeks ago. "Two years of photos." He handed them to Roger. "There's at least a hundred or so."

"But why?"

Smithy shrugged. "I don't know."

…

When Millie awoke to the sound of voices, Max's deep angry growl familiar, she knew something was wrong. Opening her eyes she saw the man standing across from Max watching her, a lurid look in his eye, and she looked away from him quickly. The story about Sarah Hatton would have normally left her feeling sad, depressed that Max had taken another life, but right now her worry was with Oscar and him only. Sarah was gone, it was a cold thought yes but the truth, but Oscar could be saved if they could just get away from this man and go find Jankowski. Millie sniffed back a tear at the thought of her son. He could be anywhere and the man before her had proven so far that he'd try anything. If he had Oscar then what did he want for him? What would he ask of Millie to get it?

When the two large men entered the room Millie realised the answer was her husband's blood.

"Do..." a hand clapped over Millie's mouth before she could finish the sentence and she cast her eyes up at the large man standing over her, the one they didn't know the name of. He grinned back coldly and just held her arm tightly. She could almost feel the circulation being cut off.

"Jankowski overestimated you Max, taking Oscar and only leaving you small clues, none of which you noticed. Me? I like mind games and big guys with gruff European accents. And in the game of 'who kills Carter first'? I like to win." The man standing across from Max (the frustration of being unable to remember his name was getting to Millie) shot Millie another cold smile, then he beckoned the man known as Reouth forward. Max didn't even resist and she knew why as soon as she caught Max's eye. He was protecting her. He was doing his usual, ridiculous one-man self-sacrifice routine for her sake.

He underestimated these men – Millie knew that instantly. If he really thought giving himself up this easily would just end it all...

The man spoke again, the lurid look returning, a glint of evil in his eye. "Sit tight sweetheart, I'll be back soon." He pulled the door shut behind him as he left, a resounding slam echoing around the room, and Millie's breath caught in her throat. Her son was kidnapped, this man was about to kill Max, and when he returned he was probably going to use Millie for his own sexual plaything.

This couldn't get worse.

Tears started to slide down Millie's cheeks though she didn't register them and the man pulled his hand away instinctively. Millie responded by yelling, calling Max to fight, and the large man returned his hand, pulling her roughly to her feet. "I suggest you shut up girlie or this is only going to g..."

He was cut off as there came a bang from outside, a yell, and Millie heard Max's voice telling someone to unlock a door. She grinned, willing her husband success, knowing he'd heard her yell but, as soon as the fight started to swing Max's way she heard another voice...

"Don't make me use it Carter." It was Reouth, his accent thick, gruff. "Give it up."

Millie slumped. It was over. The moment of hope had faded fast and now she fell silent. Hoping listening.

A struggle started. She heard voices yelling, three of them, and things being knocked over. Even the man holding Millie was listening, she could see him straining, his eyes narrowed as he focused on the sounds outside. Millie struggled against his hold for a moment but as the sounds from outside continued she gave up fighting the hold on her and just listened, praying. The man holding her tugged at her again, almost asking for her to fight, but she let him. Like he knew she was no longer a threat, he removed his hand from her mouth and used it to tighten his hold on her upper arms. But she ignored him, her ears straining for sounds from the next room, her eyes brimming with tears and her lips forming silent prayers. He had to be alright. He had to be.

The next second… a bang. A gun went off.

The man holding Millie gasped, dropping her, and she fell to the ground with a scream.

"MAX!"

**A/N 2: **Cliffhanger hiatus Kate? Why yes, I'd love to. _Noble Fight_ will be back in three weeks after I return from my holiday to America! Until then, enjoy the start of _Going Under_…


End file.
